Strangers

I arrived trembling at the barn, on my knees in the straw, waiting for a man whose face I would never get to see. I did it for my boyfriend. Or so I told myself.

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.

“Just the first three levels,” I promised him on the plane. Neither of us imagined how far that book of challenges would take us before we came home.

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.

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.

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.

His cold hand closed around my arm like a grip. I was ninety kilos of muscle, and yet in front of him I felt small, inspected, bought.

The motel terrace connected to his, and from the dimness a deep voice called me “pretty.” I should have gone inside and locked the door. I didn’t.

I only wanted to watch the sun go down and photograph the sea. Then I heard another bicycle approaching through the sand, and I knew that afternoon wouldn’t end like the others.

I checked the time at half past three when I walked into that empty bathroom. I didn’t lock the door. It was the mistake —or the stroke of luck— that changed forever what I thought I knew about myself.

The arm resting across his abdomen wasn’t his girlfriend’s. It was heavy, warm, and masculine. And Bruno couldn’t remember a thing about the night before.

When I opened my eyes in the steam room, he was already looking at me. And I knew exactly who he was, even though I never thought I’d have him that close.

I left the gym with my body still burning and took the dirt track to smoke in peace. I never expected that black car to stop right behind me.

He chose the urinal next to him without thinking. When their eyes met in the mirror, he knew neither of them had gone in just to wash their hands.

On a Friday at ten, the gym was nearly empty and a guy who was loading twice what I was on the bench beside me. One look in the mirror was enough to send everything off the rails.

I’d swum three thousand meters flat out and only wanted hot water on my shoulders. Then he turned beneath the shower beside me, and I knew that afternoon wouldn’t end like the others.

Iván and Nico walked through the door like the penthouse already belonged to them, and before they’d even said hello they’d shoved us against the living room wall.

We crossed the black curtain and the darkness swallowed us: only two red lights, the pulse of techno, and a mattress ringed by shadows already waiting for us.

I recognized his devil’s smile leaning on the bar, with the black towel and red harness, and knew that night the whole sauna would witness what was ours.

When the door shut and swallowed the last of the light, there were only the hands, the mouths, and Mateo’s voice saying that night I was his.