Seduction

While the guests toasted in the ballroom, she tied the apron over her white dress and plunged her hands into soapy water. It was her way of saying: I’m yours.

She locked the door, hung up the “closed” sign, and took him to the back of the shop with a flimsy excuse. What came after, she hadn’t entirely planned.

I needed to tell someone who wouldn’t judge me, and the only thing I could think to do was knock on his door. What I didn’t expect was what would happen at dawn.

I went in to sort out some boring paperwork and came out trembling. What that man did to me with his hands behind his desk still keeps me up at night.

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’d never accepted an invitation from a man I’d just met. But something about his smile, and the way he looked at my cleavage, made me say yes.

She had a girlfriend and I was dragging along a relationship that was fading fast. We went to the coast as friends. What happened in that room with two beds was not in my plans.

I told them my comfort was more effective than any cold drink. I took off my clothes before going in and waited for the hot water to betray me in the steam.

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.

We came home from the cinema freezing cold, but the moment the elevator doors closed I knew we weren’t going straight to bed that night.

When the power went out and we were trapped between two floors, I knew those hours in the dark would change everything. And I did nothing to stop it.

Daniela had spent years hiding what she felt for her best friend. That night on the terrace, one word — dare — gave her the excuse she’d never dared seek.

We’d been brushing against each other in the halls for weeks without daring to do anything. That night I got tired of waiting, took off my sweatshirt in front of his door, and told him what I wanted.

My friend stood me up that night, but the stranger at the bar had other plans for me. And I, even if I wouldn’t admit it out loud, did too.

Marcos introduced him as a cousin’s son, staying for a few days. But Elena quickly noticed the way the boy looked at her when no one else was paying attention.

He brought homemade orujo in an unlabeled jug and got my boyfriend drunk in an hour. When Sergio started snoring, his uncle looked at me, and I knew dinner was only the beginning.

Twelve months had passed since the last time. I turned a corner downtown and collided with her: the same perfume, the same look, the same desire I thought I’d forgotten.

I asked my neighbor for help with a pipe I could have fixed myself. The truth is I just wanted to see him walk into my house knowing we were both alone.

She asked me to come up as a guinea pig for a new oil. Her husband was sleeping in the next room, and I knew that massage would end very differently.

She came out into the hall to look for me, stared straight at me, and said she had a question. I had no idea what would happen when she closed the door.