Strangers

Martín listened in silence while I told him what had happened with my mother’s husband. That night I didn’t sleep, thinking about doing it.

I had access to every screen in the place and never should have looked. But when I saw what they did with my photos, something in me lit up.

I arrived at that estate newly separated, with no real expectations. I left with memories that took months to stop coming back on their own.

I left before dawn with my body ready and one thought in mind: reaching the other side of the highway after giving myself to every driver willing to stop.

Rodrigo had arranged everything in secret: the suite, the candles, Marcos waiting on the sofa. He only asked if I was ready before opening the door.

It wasn’t that I lacked anything. It was that I never realized what I wanted until that boy looked at me like I was the only thing in the world.

Valeria felt the heat before she understood what it was. Pink smoke filled the cabin, and everything that was protocol turned into pure instinct.

She sat on the bench and held out her feet without saying a word. Only her eyes spoke, and what they said left no room for choice.

We’d been exchanging emails with Valeria for weeks. She wanted force and pressure. When she saw us pull up on our bikes, she knew she wouldn’t be disappointed.

The message said: “How about sharing you with a couple?” I laughed. But something in those words sparked a curiosity I didn’t know I had.

She thought she was alone. She raised her phone, framed her body from below, and waited for the timer. I didn’t look away for a second.

I put on the tightest pants I owned and wore nothing underneath. What happened next was a secret only I knew while I was at work.

I hadn’t planned it. But when he walked in with the others and locked eyes with me, I already knew that night would end only one way.

They had spent their whole lives being the responsible mothers. That night, in a house smelling of salt and wine, they decided to stop.

When the first ones came up to the car and she didn’t look away, I knew that night we were going much further than we’d planned.

When he closed the door with his suitcase, we were left alone. The sex was still there, intense and familiar, but something was missing. Something only he brought.

We had been playing with the idea for months. But when Laura walked up to that man in the water and I saw her hand move beneath the surface, I knew it was no longer a fantasy.

When I opened the door, the first thing I noticed was his lips. The second was how he looked at me before coming in. I already knew how the afternoon was going to end.

We had fantasized for years. When the sealed envelope arrived with the word “Quimera,” I knew that night would break something between us forever.