Peeping

When Diego came out of the shower with his towel barely tied, Lucía knew that week was going to be very hard to endure in silence.

I never imagined I’d be the one pushing my wife toward another man, but there I was, reading every email with a racing pulse and a dry mouth.

They had been going to nude beaches for ten years without anything ever happening. That afternoon a man sat down in front of them and she did what her husband had spent years not daring to imagine.

When I opened the laptop Gonzalo “forgot” in my car, I understood those two husbands had spent months preparing me as the main course of their darkest fantasy.

I was always certain of her faithfulness. So when she lowered her gaze and began to talk about that night, I felt the ground shift beneath my feet.

She went down the stairs with her heart racing and her dress clinging to her naked skin. She knew he was watching from the window, and that tonight the game could no longer be undone.

I went down to the loneliest cove to enjoy the sun, but behind that umbrella lying on its side there was something I wasn’t supposed to see. And an idea came to me.

For years I pretended not to understand why she lingered when passing that shop. The afternoon I followed her inside, I realized my mother had already stopped belonging only to my father.

I’d spent years cheating on my husband without guilt, but I never imagined a work trip to a remote farm would end with me on my knees before a stranger.

I never answer the phone at three in the morning, but that night I knew it was him, and what he had to confess about my wife and the old man upstairs could not wait until morning.

He thought that night was just a night out with his friends. He never imagined the masked woman onstage had spent weeks planning his downfall.

The drive to the gym didn’t account for eighty extra kilometers every Thursday. That number was the first thread of a truth that would end up exciting me more than destroying me.

I bought a tiny bikini without letting her choose it, counted the hours until dawn, and lay down on the small mattress, praying she’d stay alone with him.

It started with a threat over a false rumor. It ended with her husband on his knees in the sand, begging me to fulfill the desire he never dared confess.

They arrived at the ranch looking for a mattress to spend the night. What they didn’t expect was the story the two brothers had kept for years, or how eagerly they’d tell it.

That morning I only wanted a quiet shower. I had no idea someone would come in behind me, or that on the other side of the door there was a witness who wasn’t going anywhere.

I never thought I’d be capable of something like this, but the bank ultimatum was on the table and I could only think of one way out neither of us would forget.

I was only looking for a place to sleep. I never imagined a hole in her pajama pants would change everything that night.

For twenty years behind the desk, I've learned to read people. I knew she couldn't make rent long before she dared ask me for help.

When the stall door opened a few inches, I knew Nuria was letting me look on purpose. What I couldn’t have imagined was how the night would end.