Seduction

The tree that grew between our yards was only the excuse. What I really wanted was on the other side of that wall, and I learned to jump it every time he left.

I ran into her in the communal showers and, without thinking too much, decided to provoke the situation. What followed turned a boring trip into something I still can’t get out of my head.

He was new, shy, and polite. He never imagined that that afternoon, after everyone left the office, a single command from me would be enough to put him on his knees.

Three months became nine, and among waterfalls and orchids I discovered that my different body was no curse, but the heart of a desire the village celebrated.

When I was down to just my bra and thong, my friend climbed onto the stage and asked for the music to start over. She didn’t want to leave me alone up there.

I was furious at my husband’s idea, but when I took off my last piece of clothing and floated naked in front of them both, I realized I liked it more than I should have.

For a full week I watched her from behind a dune, convinced I’d never dare approach her. Then she lost her house keys on a Saturday afternoon.

I crept barefoot down the hallway while he slept, determined to give my husband the cuckolding he wanted so badly—but on my terms: he’d never know he already had it.

She was leaning against the wall, looking at her phone, in a black dress that suited her far too well. She wasn’t smoking. She was just waiting, and I still didn’t know for whom.

I came home still burning from the night before, never imagining a kitchen conversation would unravel me more than any caress.

We left almost without saying goodbye. In the car, with anger still burning inside me, I decided to remind him who he belonged to that night.

The theater was almost empty when she chose the seat one place away. She wasn’t watching the screen—she was watching me, and wanted me to notice.

I arrived at his door with a backpack, no family, and no way back. He got home from work at five-thirty, and all I wanted was to be the woman I had always known I was.

At fifty-five I thought desire was a thing of the past, until my daughter’s husband looked at me the way mine had long forgotten how.

Her mother went to mass on Wednesday afternoons, and that half hour became the office’s best-kept secret.

I opened the curtains half asleep and didn’t realize he was on the other side of the glass, watching me. And something in that look made me want to let him keep going.

He hadn’t seen me in years, but when I opened the door at midnight and felt his firm hands on my waist, I knew my godfather was looking at me differently now.

When the case forced me to dress as a woman, I never imagined Lía, the woman in the mirror, would drag me into a night that changed everything.

She got into my car in a loose dress and with the calm of someone who’s no longer in a hurry. I never imagined that two days later she’d ask me to detour to her door.

I let him in thinking he just wanted a glass of water. Ten minutes later I was on my knees in front of the sofa and didn’t want it to stop.