Seduction

She arrived in black underwear, turned on the hose, and let the water run over her skin. I knew then that that August night, we weren’t going to behave like friends.

The other side of the bed was untouched and, on the fruit bowl, an envelope with my name and my husband’s square handwriting.

I never imagined my husband’s best friend would teach me something about myself in a store changing room. Much less that we’d invite him to join us that same afternoon.

We always slept in the same bed and told each other everything. That night, with a drink too many, Renata took my face in her hands and kissed me like never before.

I looked down and saw her hand resting on my thigh. We’d been friends for five years, but that night, after the second glass of vodka, everything changed in an instant.

I’d been traveling for twenty hours with one thought: back in their arms. I never imagined that reunion would force me to cross a line I’d sworn never to cross.

I’d been cleaning that huge house for eight months. I never imagined what that married couple was hiding behind the row of shoes, or how far I’d go for tuition.

She wore the tightest yellow dress in her closet and a head full of arguments against that woman. An hour later, she no longer knew whether she hated or desired her.

When he whispered, “Go, press yourself against him,” I knew we wouldn’t be going home alone that night. And part of me had been wanting it for weeks.

My wife always fantasized about another man having her in front of me. That afternoon, at a lonely stop on the highway, a stranger asked for a light and everything stopped being a game.

I went upstairs still carrying the smell of the hospital on my skin. The half-open door, the warm light, her silk nightgown. No words were needed: I already knew how the night would end.

I had watched her go from shy boy to stunning woman. That hot afternoon, with the pizza cooling on the table, she was the one who leaned in and kissed me first.

Carla whispered her darkest fantasy to me, and weeks later I watched her kneeling before the man we had both chosen without ever saying it aloud.

When the shop shutter locked, I knew there was no turning back: the three of us were alone, and my husband was looking at me with that complicit smile.

As soon as we closed the door, we came at each other urgently. Then he asked me in my ear if I could picture the two of us together, and that night changed everything.

When I asked for a full waxing, she arched a brow and her smile stopped being professional. The wax and her fingers soon became one.

It was half past eleven at night when Daniela appeared in the hallway and asked me for help with the fire. I’d spent the whole afternoon thinking about what their bags were hiding.

I was married and alone at the town fair when my two exes showed up the same night. They hated each other at first. Then they decided to share me until dawn.

I went up to her apartment convinced the most imposing woman I’d ever seen was waiting for me. I had no idea the night had only just begun—or who else was sleeping at the end of the hall.

When Lucía moved into our flat, both brothers wanted her. I never imagined that years later she’d be the one asking Bruno to get into our bed.