The Partner Swap Behind the Masks

Damián and Esteban were brothers and partners in an advertising agency they had built from nothing. They founded it when they were twenty-four and twenty-six, and almost two decades later the business was sailing along nicely. That afternoon they were in Damián’s spacious office, sunk into two leather armchairs, with a cigar between their fingers and a glass of aged French cognac in hand.

—We’ve shared almost everything in life —Damián said, slowly letting out the smoke—, but there’s something we’ve never shared, and I’d like to share it.

Esteban, slim, dark-skinned, with dark eyes, tapped ash into the crystal ashtray and looked at him with one eyebrow raised.

—What’s gotten into your head now?

—Swapping our women.

Esteban didn’t so much as flinch. He took a sip of cognac, savored it, and asked calmly:

—You want to sleep with mine?

—I want to sleep with yours and for you to sleep with mine —Damián replied—. One night only. Nothing more.

—We can bring it up, but I doubt they’ll agree. Patricia is pretty prim.

—Carla has only ever been with me and Patricia only with you. Both of them are curious, even if they don’t say it. And there’s something else: behind a mask, a person discovers things about themselves they’d never dare admit with their face uncovered.

—A mask?

—Tuesday is the club’s carnival ball. We could put it to them under that excuse. If things are done, they should be done properly.

—You’ve thought of everything.

—You talk to Patricia tonight. I’ll handle Carla.

***

That night, in the master bedroom, Carla was brushing her hair in front of the dressing table. She was a woman with generous curves, average height, black eyes, and chestnut hair. Damián came up behind her in his underwear, took the brush from her hand, and started combing her hair himself.

—What are you up to, pirate? —she asked, looking at him through the mirror.

He took her hand and brought it to the bulge that was already stretching the fabric.

—What do you think?

Carla turned on the stool, pulled down his underwear, and took him in her mouth without further preamble. She licked him slowly, from top to bottom, until she felt him harden between her lips.

In the adjoining room, Sofía had her ear pressed to the back of a glass held against the wall. Her cousin Lucía was sitting on the bed, restless.

—They’re going to do it today —Sofía whispered.

—We should stop spying on them —Lucía said—. Both when I sleep here and when you sleep at my place.

—Hush, she’s already gobbling him up.

Carla sat up, took off her slip and her underwear. She had large breasts with dark areolas. She lay down on the bed and spread her legs.

—Eat me out.

Damián knelt and buried his face between her thighs. While he licked her, he murmured against her skin:

—Tonight I’d like us to play a game.

—What kind?

—I want you to imagine that the one doing this to you is someone else. Someone you like.

Carla snapped her legs shut and sat up.

—Have you gone crazy?

—It’s just a game, woman, to try something new —he insisted, stroking her thigh.

—What you call trying something new, I call indecency. Say it already: what are you after?

Damián leapt into the void.

—I want you to try someone else. My brother. On Tuesday, at the ball. You’d go as a nun and Patricia as a nurse.

The slap must have been heard on the whole floor.

—I’m not killing you only because I don’t have anything handy!

He pretended it hadn’t hurt.

—You hit like a little girl.

Two more slaps warmed his cheeks before Damián grabbed her around the waist and spun her against the wall, right onto the partition where his daughter and niece were listening on the other side.

—It’s been a while since we did it standing up —he told her in her ear.

He spread her legs, bent down, and ran his tongue between her buttocks. Carla lowered her voice, her anger melting into something else.

—Let me go.

—First I’ll get you ready.

He licked her for a while, slowly, until he felt her yield. He turned her around, knelt again, and ate her soaked sex while she dug her fingers into his hair.

—Stop, stop… I want to finish another way —she panted.

Damián stood up, rubbed the head between her buttocks, and pushed in slowly. When he was inside all the way, he started to move: first gently, then without mercy.

—Imagine it’s someone else doing it to you —he whispered against her neck.

—Don’t fuck with me, Damián. You want me to cheat on you right under your nose?

—Yes.

—Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t —it slipped out of her.

—Why not? Tell me.

He hit harder and Carla ended up singing between moans:

—Because I don’t fantasize about men.

—Then close your eyes and think of a woman.

She obeyed, silent, while he thrust against the wall. Pleasure flooded her until she could no longer hold back.

—Harder, I’m coming!

—Who were you thinking of? —he insisted.

—Mariela —she confessed at last, to get him to leave her in peace—. Your friend Tomás’s daughter.

—You like them young. Would you really sleep with her?

—Of course I would… I’m coming, I’m coming!

Damián emptied himself inside her with a grunt.

On the other side of the partition, Sofía bit her hand to stifle her own orgasm, thighs clenched, while Lucía rubbed herself desperately on the bed. When they caught their breath, they looked at each other in the dim light. Something had been left hanging between them.

—What my mother said turned me on —Lucía whispered.

—Would you sleep with her? —Sofía asked, half joking.

—Yes. And I know you’ve been wanting something with my father for a while.

They laughed softly, but neither denied it. That same dawn, huddled under the sheets, they drew up a plan. If their parents wanted to play at masks, they would play better.

***

At the bar of a pub, Esteban’s phone vibrated. It was Patricia.

—You can come home —she said, coldly—, but if you mention swaps to me again, I’ll pack your bags and ask for a divorce.

—Relax, I won’t bring it up again —he replied, and hung up with a grimace.

A few days later, Esteban received a handwritten note: “On Tuesday I’ll go dressed as a nun to the club ball. Don’t tell your brother anything. If you want me, come at eleven to the north area of the parking lot. No words. Just that.” Damián received another almost identical one, except that his mentioned a nurse.

The brothers compared the messages that same afternoon, beers in hand.

—They’re carbon copies, Damián. It’s a trap. Patricia nearly tore my eyes out when I mentioned the subject to her. They’ve talked it over between them and they’re going to make each of us end up with our own wife, just to laugh at us.

—I agree. But we can turn it around.

—How?

—You go after the nurse and I’ll go after the nun. If we get it wrong, the worst that happens is that each of us ends up sleeping with his wife. We’ve got nothing to lose.

—That’s the spirit.

***

Tuesday night arrived. Damián and Esteban dressed in an office at the agency, disguised as devils, with latex masks so realistic they reproduced the faces of two well-known actors. When they entered the club, the music was pounding and the hall was packed.

They looked through the crowd and found them at once: the nun and the nurse, dancing very close, too close. Both were also wearing latex masks, faces of beautiful women that were not their own.

—They’re all over each other —said Esteban.

—They’re just pretending to be a couple, nothing more.

—Well, your wife is groping mine’s ass.

At that moment the nun and the nurse kissed on the mouth, slowly, without hiding it.

—I’m hard as a rock —murmured Esteban.

—Me too. Let them play. —Damián looked at his watch—. Fifteen minutes to go. Let’s get a drink.

At the bar, with a whiskey in hand, Esteban insisted:

—Those two end up really hooking up and we’re left with nothing.

—I don’t think so. Unless your wife likes women.

—Behind a mask, anyone can transform.

When they looked back, the nun and the nurse were gone.

***

Esteban found the nurse leaning against a black sedan, at the back of the parking lot. There were no words. He put her facing the car, lifted her gown, pulled down her underwear, and bent down to lick her from behind. The place wasn’t safe, so a couple of minutes later he penetrated her standing up.

He smiled beneath the mask. He smiled because the head had gone in very tight, as if for the first time in a long while, and this was not his wife’s body. He sank in slowly to the hilt and fucked her: first slowly, then fast, in the end hard enough to break. The nurse covered her mouth with one hand to muffle her moans. Her whole body trembled, clenched around him, and came once, and again, until Esteban emptied himself inside her with a dull groan.

Damián, meanwhile, had found the nun leaning against a blue coupé. There were no words either. She crouched down, opened his pants, and took him into her mouth until he was hard as stone. He smiled too: his wife never did it that way.

The nun stood up, pulled down her underwear, braced her hands on the car roof, and spread her legs. Damián lifted her habit and thrust in with a single stroke. He went in like a cannon shot. He fucked her without mercy until she convulsed, mouth covered by her hand, and he spilled inside her. At that moment it started to rain and they had to run to take shelter in the club.

***

When the nurse returned to the hall, the nun was already seated on a chair. She stood up, they took each other by the hand, and they went back to dancing as if nothing had happened. Esteban found Damián at the bar.

—Was I right or not?

—You were right, brother. You were right.

They both toasted, convinced they had gotten away with it.

Hours later, Damián got home and found Carla asleep on the living room sofa. He woke her with a kiss on the forehead.

—How was the ball? —she asked.

Carla stretched and sat up, rubbing her eyes.

—What ball? Why were your brother and you both with your phones switched off all night?

The smile froze on Damián’s face.

—What happened?

—Patricia’s mother got very sick this afternoon. We rushed her to the hospital and there was no way to reach you. Patricia is still there with her. I just got back.

—Is she in serious condition?

—They said she’d pull through, but what a scare. Call your brother and tell him.

Damián nodded slowly, phone already in hand and a question sinking its claws into his chest. If Carla had spent the night in the hospital, and Patricia was still there… Then who were the two masked women he and Esteban had just left dancing in the hall?