Party

I put on the blue dress Nadia chose for me, with nothing underneath, and went up on deck knowing that night I wouldn’t leave a single line uncrossed.

We wandered disguised as monks when the forest spat us out in front of an inn of generous flesh and bottomless wine; what happened inside could not be confessed as penance.

Three chairs in the middle of the living room, four women circling, and the music about to stop: the one left standing that round got nothing.

We were two girlfriends away to unwind, and ended up in the bed of two strangers. None of the four hands knew anymore which body belonged to whom.

I went to bed angry over something stupid. Fifteen minutes later I woke up, heard noises in the living room, and what I saw changed everything between the two couples.

For years we mentioned it over laughter and drinks without daring to try. That night, someone wrote our names on slips of paper, and everyone stopped talking.

Four office coworkers, new heels, and a boss with a plan. What happened when the last glass was emptied was something no one dared say out loud.

I asked her not to wear anything beneath the green dress. I never imagined that little tease would open the door to the couple at the next table.

“The decision is yours, you decide.” I couldn’t get that phrase out of my head all week, while my body had already decided for me.

I was waiting with my suitcases packed to leave him. But when he started telling me what happened with her, I discovered my body was reacting differently than my pride.

I went out to clear my head with a bottle of tequila still in my hand. I had no idea that crossing paths with him in the hallway would change everything that night.

When Diego left me the car and went home with the child, I never imagined I’d end the night against a bathroom wall with another man’s mouth on my neck.

There was a week left before my wedding when I sat in the middle of the room and let a stranger convince me to go into that bedroom.

At the wedding everyone was looking at her in a way I never had. That night she came up to get me and I passed out drunk. What happened after that I only found out at dawn.

The night before my wedding I got myself ready alone in the hotel suite. What my future husband didn’t know was who I was really getting ready for.

He thought that night was just a night out with his friends. He had no idea the masked woman on stage had been planning his downfall for weeks.

She told me, “Distrust my husband,” and I laughed. Three months later, my wife walked into my office unable to look me in the eye.

I went down to the pool in my underwear just to provoke him. I never imagined I’d end that same night begging him not to stop inside me.

I’d spent months seeing her in a sweater and glasses behind the monitor. That night, in a wine-colored dress and with a few drinks in her, she looked at me in a way that changed everything.

I kissed him in the car before going into the party, never imagining that inside I’d find the last person I wanted to see: my own father.