Strangers

For months I’ve been replaying the same scene in my head on the ride home. Today, when the seat beside me was taken, I almost stopped breathing.

I rode out on my bike without underwear, my phone buzzing with messages I should never have opened. The road was empty, but I felt watched by everyone.

I closed my eyes for a second and, when I opened them, a huge shadow was blocking the sun. What happened next only existed in my imagination… until that afternoon.

You looked one way and then the other, certain you were alone, when you hiked up your dress in the middle of the garage. You didn’t see that, two spaces away, someone had been watching you for a while.

I sat between an older man and a guy who was to die for. Then the train slammed to a halt, the lights went out, and a hand found mine.

The store was closed and she had the whole morning free. The driver noticed before she did, and that smile in the mirror made her think things she shouldn’t.

I slipped barefoot to the chapel at midnight to ask forgiveness for my dreams. I never imagined something waited coiled in the shadows, ready to teach me what my body had kept silent.

I tripped over a root, and before I could get up, she was already on top of me. Her cold skin brushed mine, and I knew that night I wouldn’t leave the forest unchanged.

She wasn’t looking for love or company. She wanted to be watched, desired, imagined naked beneath her dress. That night she chose to be pure fire.

She came to the clearing seeking silence and found torches, naked bodies, and dozens of deer masks waiting for her as if they had always known she would return that night.

For weeks I’d been imagining a night like that, without names or promises. What I didn’t imagine was that he’d be watching me from the bar like he already knew everything.

I’m shy with almost everyone, except my husband. That’s why I was so surprised to want that stranger who sat down in front of me, as if she’d been waiting for months.

He was barely at my elbow when he took my hand. In six minutes, I discovered my body had no use for the rules I’d imposed on myself.

I woke up certain it had only been a steamy nightmare. Then I saw the box on the living-room table, just like in the dream, and the coffee slipped from my hands.

She arrives at ten-thirty, leans against the shelter, and crosses her legs. She doesn’t know it, but in my head we’ve already done everything we’d never dare.

My friend thought we’d just come for some fresh air. I’d already picked my prey: the dark-haired man playing with his son ten meters from us.

When the train left without me, I thought the night was lost. Then I saw him across the platform, motionless, looking at me as if he’d been waiting forever.

The paper robe barely covered me. When his hot hands slid down my back, I knew that session wasn’t going to end the way I’d imagined.

I left the house wearing a sweater that made everything see-through and nothing underneath. My boyfriend walked behind me, watching me, while strangers’ eyes ran over my body.

I went into the bathroom wearing my thong and came out with it tied in my hair. I had no idea the line for the theater would be the longest part of the night.