Neighbors

The first time I found the wrapper in the trash, I thought I was mistaken. By the fourth time, I knew exactly what was happening in that room.

I went upstairs with a stranger and, when the door closed, I knew my neighbor was already posted behind the curtain, ready to watch every detail.

At quarter to eleven I was already going down the stairs in my building. Before leaving I looked through the peephole, just in case I saw someone. The landing was empty. Better that way.

From my rooftop I had a direct view of my neighbor’s yard. I’d been watching her for weeks when I noticed something strange in her movements. I never imagined what I would discover.

I ran out in my nightgown, naked underneath, with the vibrator in my hand. The door clicked shut, and I knew I was locked out. Someone was already in the hall.

When they moved into the building, my gray life found a focal point. What I didn’t expect was that point would end up consuming me completely.

The door opened, and Nadia looked me up and down with a slow smile. Behind her, Raquel crossed her arms. “Speak,” she said. “What do you want?"

She was 67 and had the smile of someone who’d seen it all. When I got her into bed that New Year’s Eve, I never guessed I’d end up watching her for hours.

Sofía had been wearing that mischievous look for weeks. When she suggested a stranger watch her touch herself on camera while I observed in silence, I said yes without hesitation.

While the others kept drinking, I already had Andrés cornered in the alley. I'd spent hours unable to take my eyes off him.

Rodrigo opened the door and found his neighbor in the hallway, teary-eyed, her dress tight. What she asked him for minutes later had no name.

The August heat crushed the apartment courtyard, and Adrián couldn’t take his eyes off the window opposite. Mrs. Valverde had no idea she was being watched.

The image was crystal clear: her lying on his lounger, in a bikini, with a smile that wasn’t for me. What came next left me speechless.

Carmen appeared at my window as if she had been waiting for that moment. She didn’t leave. She made me come downstairs. What happened next was beyond anything either of us imagined.

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 was left alone with Marcos, the lifelong neighbor, something shifted between us. He came closer slowly and kissed me without asking permission or forgiveness.

When she invited me up to her apartment, I knew I couldn’t say no again. She was almost seventy and I was thirty-six, and that had never mattered so little.

We’d spent years avoiding those childhood games, until one winter afternoon I asked him to take me on his bike and my hand landed where it shouldn’t.

The two wineglasses on the coffee table and the dim bedroom light told me I was about to see something I should never have seen.