Seduction

I had spent thirty years closing projects for the company. On my farewell trip, I never imagined the woman traveling beside me would be the one to say goodbye to me in a different way.

I went back to school that afternoon under the excuse of studying in the library, but neither of us was going to open a single book. We were there for them.

It was six in the morning and he was looking at me in the rearview mirror as if he already knew what I was going to let happen. This really happened, and I regret nothing.

The gym was almost empty that Monday. I only wanted a quiet shower, but I walked through the wrong door… and he was already inside, watching me in silence.

A car braked beside me and asked my price. I was thirty-seven, a lawyer, and for once I decided not to say no to the madness.

I crossed the complex to deliver a message and ended up surrounded by four older men who looked at me as if I were the main course of the afternoon.

Damián came every three days; Adrián showed up Friday on his motorbike. That week I found out just how far I could go when nobody was looking.

He was my best friend, my confidant. That fair-night between wine and laughter, his hand on my waist sparked something I had never felt for him.

I never get involved with clients, I told him. But his body was already pressed against mine and my own voice sounded like a lie as I closed the garage gate.

I served that house since I was a boy and watched as that woman’s fire-red mane brought the valley’s most powerful men to their knees, one by one, by day of the week.

No one at the party suspected a thing: to everyone we were just friends. But that dawn Adrián took the road to the hillside estate, and I knew we were done pretending.

I saw his name on the screen and knew I shouldn’t answer. But I did, and the moment I heard his voice I was again the woman I swore I’d never be.

I parked beside her car, never guessing that my free afternoon would end with her climbing into mine in the darkest corner of the garage.

The phone rang and it was him, offering me a session that same afternoon. From his tone, I knew we weren’t going to talk only about massages.

I returned the apartment keys and, without planning it, that week ended with the confession I never thought I’d tell anyone: two men, a friend, and a single night.

From the dance floor we were already sneaking our hands to each other; what we didn’t finish in the car, we continued in my room, unhurried and unclothed.

I told him I’d come in sweaty and needed a shower. He carried me to the sofa and whispered that, with my scent, he liked me even more.

I swear this is a real story, one you don’t tell out loud. She appeared from the hedges almost naked, asked me for a light, and everything else just happened.

I thought it was just an innocent game of glances at a traffic light. I never imagined that one Saturday morning I’d ring his doorbell with the most ridiculous excuse.

I never promised you more than I gave you, and maybe that’s why you came back. This is the story of the woman I never truly got to know.