Neighbors

The August heat crushed the block’s courtyard and Adrián couldn’t tear his eyes from the window across the way. Mrs. Valverde didn’t know she was being watched.

Lorena had a reputation for liking women. I never paid it any mind until that spring morning when we ended up trapped together.

When I lent Bruno the red brief that morning, I had no idea my neighbor would come looking for us and that the path to the river would end in something none of us had ever done before.

Going out in a thong and bra under my leggings was my secret ritual. I didn’t expect anyone to dare follow me. Or that I’d want them to so badly.

Sandra needed help with a blind. I needed to forget the worst day of my life. Neither of us expected Valentina to arrive so soon.

Daniela was twenty, lived on the fourth floor, and had never been with a woman. That day, all of that changed at once.

When Sofía walked through the door of my apartment, she didn’t know exactly what was waiting for her. Her mother had planned everything weeks in advance.

I had waited months for that Saturday. High heels, lace lingerie, the estate all to myself. No one was supposed to see me. Then Roberto from the estate across the way arrived.

She was alone at the water’s edge when he arrived. From above, Ricardo watched them without being able to look away. What happened wasn’t for anyone else.

When Marta told me she’d found the four perfect women for my punishment, I knew there was no turning back. That same afternoon I signed the contract without reading half of it.

Martín arrived with a ladder and a toolbox. Doña Carmen saw him from the window taking off his shirt in the sun and knew the job would be a long one.

When my husband traveled, the two old men on the fifth floor invited me to celebrate a birthday. What happened on the dining table should never have happened.

I went down to the bar’s courtyard at two in the morning because my room was impossible to breathe in. I never imagined I’d end up following her to the little room out back.

Forty-three degrees, four in the afternoon, and her on the balcony with the camisole stuck to her body, knowing full well I was going to climb five floors.

For twelve years, no one had looked at her like that. Rodrigo was twenty, he came with a ladder and a smile, and all she wanted was for him to fix her roof.

We played strip poker with my neighbors. Nobody said what else was being played for, but when I was left naked in the middle of the living room, we didn’t need the cards anymore.

The first night in the new apartment, I heard the neighbor on the other side of the wall. I had to go to the bathroom to finish while Laura slept.

You’ve been swallowing midnight sighs for years. That night someone was watching you from the doorway, and your body knew before you did.

At eleven-thirty I went down to the laundry room with an excuse. She was turned away, and didn’t turn when she heard me come in. That changed everything.

There was something in her eyes when she turned around that should have worried me. It wasn’t the anger of an irritated neighbor. It was a promise.