Peeping

She bent down to gather the pieces of the broken cup, unaware that someone was watching her from the doorway, holding his breath.

When I found out what the forfeit was, I was struck dumb. Not because I couldn’t, but because it exposed me with a man who knew half the city. And yet I arrived on time that first day.

The two towels on the rack told me I wasn’t alone. The smart thing would have been to leave. Instead, I stayed pressed against the glass.

I climbed onto the bench, pressed my eye to the plastic grille, and recognized her: the woman who had been glancing my way all afternoon.

They got into my car thinking they were only going to take a bath and eat a hot meal. I had already decided that afternoon wouldn’t end with them dressed.

We had a simple arrangement: a missed call when they started, and me appearing on my balcony as if by chance. That night changed everything.

I was twenty-six and thought I knew my limits. A stranger on the sand and my husband’s complicit gaze showed me I knew nothing.

My boyfriend thought I wouldn’t dare. He bet I’d only get the gardener worked up from the window, but that afternoon he ended up on his knees in front of me.

Years ago, I wrote ten commandments to keep from hurting anyone. First: never intervene. Second: remain hidden. This is one of the nights I’ll never confess.

Marcos asked me not to judge or ask questions when his friend came over. That same night, from the next room, I learned what kind of Friday visitors they had.

Her husband opened the door of his home with one intention: to watch two strangers make his wife come. She pretended to hesitate, but her eyes had already decided.

I thought I was watching without anyone noticing. When I entered the locker room to hide my erection, she was already waiting with two friends.

A gust of wind tore the towel away on the last step. She didn’t cover herself. She only looked at me, as if she’d been waiting weeks for me to come down at that hour.

From my balcony I could see her bed. That night I went out for air as usual, never imagining she’d turn on the light and strip in front of me.

It was nine on a Sunday morning, and I was the only person out on the street. That’s why I was the only one who saw her leave the shop almost naked, unaware that I was watching.

I raised the blind just a little, as always. But that night Marina was standing in front of the mirror, and for the first time she didn’t look away from my window.

Everyone at the office talked about Marcos’s wife’s body. I only wanted to see it with my own eyes, even if I had to invent a dismissal to do it.

My mother thought I was still in class. She didn’t know the closet door was ajar and that I saw everything from inside her room that afternoon.

Marina hadn’t slept from excitement. What none of the three of us imagined was that that hidden cove would strip us of a lot more than our clothes.

I only needed a bathroom that hot afternoon. What that old man at the garage did with his phone left me trapped and at his mercy for days.