Party

I came out of the bathroom with my bikini half unfastened and he was there, drying his hair. We froze. What happened next still makes me smile.

I thought I knew him after three years together, until that night he set the glass on the table and told me he had a fantasy he didn’t dare confess.

On the outside I was the perfect girlfriend, the one who turns off the light and moans softly. That morning I came home fired up from the dance floor and decided I was done pretending.

I spent twelve months hauling spotlights and hating my life. That night, by the fountain, a stranger asked me to photograph her like no one ever had.

I’d soaked her dress at the start of the party. I never imagined that same stranger would corner me against the railing when there were almost no people left on the rooftop.

I took an empty shot glass with me when I left the dance floor. I didn’t even understand why, until we were alone in his car and I knew exactly what I was going to do with it.

By day she had an ordinary name and practical steps. By night, under red lights, she chose a stranger and never missed.

The show was over, the drums had gone quiet, but the fire carnival had lit between her legs was only just beginning to burn.

I only wanted to make my ex jealous. I never imagined that night would end with me climbing a hidden staircase with the club bouncer.

I signed up at the last minute for a countryside party where no one had a partner and one rule ruled everything: what happened that night stayed there. I had no idea how far it would go.

I thought it would just be the three of us having dinner. But my cousin invited her friends, and that night I discovered how far I was willing to go to please her boyfriend.

I received the unsigned note in front of everyone. That same night, behind a mask, a man's hands taught me what I'd kept silent for so long.

That night Eneko broke down, so Unai did the only thing he knew would calm him: he took him to the bed where Mikel and Asier were already waiting awake.

I showed up at that party in my swimwear thinking it would be just another day with my boyfriend. I had no idea I’d end up on my knees, showing another man what he was missing.

I'd kept that secret for years. All it took was a bottle of vodka and an old white flip-flop for her to take control and bring me to my knees.

The moment the gathering loosens up and no one is looking, I slip into the bathroom. I know exactly what I’m going to find in the hamper, and I know perfectly well what I’m going to do with it.

She lifted her skirt, looked at me hard, and said not to be embarrassed, that we all did it. That’s when I knew that night wouldn’t be like any other.

Each step made the hidden metal beneath her skirt ring out. Vera had learned to live wet, on the edge, waiting for the next needle he would drive into her flesh.

Balloons had terrified and aroused me in equal measure since childhood. On that birthday, locked in the bathroom, I discovered how far that contradiction could take me.

I yelled that the gate was open so he could come in with both hands full. What he didn’t anticipate was the water balloon waiting for him just past the threshold.