What the Unknown Woman at the Late-Night Cinema Was Hiding

I’d come from an impossible week at the agency, one of those that leave your body tired and your head buzzing. I didn’t want to go out drinking or shut myself away at home again to stare at the television until I fell asleep on the sofa. I needed a dark, quiet place where nobody asked anything of me.

So I drove to the old downtown cinema, the one that still shows midnight screenings for a handful of people. I bought popcorn I wasn’t even hungry enough to eat and a huge soda, more out of habit than thirst. The theater was almost empty: I counted six people scattered like islands in the dim light.

I chose a middle row and sank into the seat. Finally, I thought. An hour and a half without having to talk to anyone.

That’s what I thought.

When the trailers started, I saw her come in through the side aisle. She walked slowly, unhurriedly, as if the whole theater belonged to her. She wore a tight, thin T-shirt and jeans that traced every curve, and she moved with a confidence that was hard to ignore. She wasn’t just beautiful: she was the kind of woman who makes you forget what you were even thinking.

To my surprise, she came straight toward my row. She passed in front of me, brushing my knees with her legs, and when our eyes met she smiled at me in a way that was anything but innocent. She sat two seats to my right.

I tried to play it cool, to keep my eyes on the screen, but I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye every few seconds. She knew it. And she liked that I knew she knew.

***

The movie started and the room went nearly dark, lit only by the shifting glow of the screen. In the middle of a quiet scene, she leaned toward me and spoke in a very low voice.

—Wouldn’t you rather I sat next to you? That way you can stop twisting your neck to look at me.

I lost my breath. I hadn’t expected such bluntness. I smiled like an idiot and nodded, unable to come up with anything coherent. She stood up, slid into the seat beside me, and left the middle armrest raised.

Her perfume wrapped around me at once, something warm and sweet that went straight up my nose and down into my stomach. Her knee brushed mine and she didn’t move away. Neither did I.

—Renata —she whispered, offering me her hand with a formality that contrasted with everything else.

—Mateo —I answered, trying not to let my voice shake.

—Nice to meet you, Mateo.

For a few minutes we only exchanged whispered comments about the movie, silly jokes neither of us really listened to. And then came the first gesture that left no room for doubt: her hand settled on my thigh, calm and natural, as if it had been there all her life.

I turned to look at her. Her eyes were shining in the dark, amused, challenging me. She had that look of someone who knows exactly what she’s doing and enjoys every second of it.

Very slowly, her hand began to travel up my leg. Centimeter by centimeter, unhurried, until it reached the taut fabric of my pants. She stroked me through them and let out the faintest laugh when she felt how hard I was.

—Wow. Looks like you’re enjoying the movie more than you let on.

I swallowed. I couldn’t find the words. Lights and sound kept moving on the screen, but for me nothing existed anymore beyond her hand and her breathing near my ear.

***

She pulled down the zipper with a care that made me even more nervous, and slid her hand inside. She wrapped her warm fingers around me and started moving them slowly, all while pretending to watch the screen with perfect naturalness. I bit my lip so I wouldn’t make a sound.

Then, without warning, she leaned over my lap. I felt her mouth, her tongue, the wet heat closing over me right there, in a theater with six strangers just a few feet away. The idea that anyone might turn around made my pulse race in a way I’d never felt before.

I gripped the armrests hard, digging my fingers into the worn fabric. She moved calmly, unhurried, alternating lips and tongue, teasing me as if we had all night.

—God, Renata —I gasped through clenched teeth, barely able to speak.

She stopped just in time. She straightened up, wiped the corner of my mouth with a finger, and whispered in my ear with a smile you could hear in her voice.

—Relax. This is only the beginning. I’ve got a surprise for you.

The word “surprise” hammered in my chest and made me even harder, without me really understanding why.

A few more minutes of stolen caresses passed, hands that wouldn’t stay still, until she stood up and grabbed my wrist.

—Come on. The bathroom. Now.

I didn’t hesitate for a second.

***

We left the theater walking fast, pressed into the shadows of the corridor, and slipped into the restroom at the back, the one almost nobody uses for late-night screenings. As soon as she shut the door, she shoved me against the cold tiled wall and kissed me with a hunger that left me defenseless. Her tongue sought mine, her whole body pressing into me.

I fumbled with the buttons on her jeans and started pulling them down, desperate to feel more skin. When I had them halfway down her legs, I stopped for a moment.

Beneath the thin fabric of her underwear was something I hadn’t expected. An unmistakable bulge.

I froze, my hands suspended in midair, trying to process what was in front of me. Renata watched me with a calm smile, not a trace of shame, waiting for my reaction.

—Surprise —she murmured.

A thousand things rushed through my head at once: doubts, ideas I thought I had sorted out about myself, everything flipping over in an instant. But my body, still every bit as aroused as it had been a minute before, had already answered for me.

—Any problem, Mateo? —she asked, brushing against me with her hip.

—None —I panted—. Quite the opposite.

***

She smiled, and that smile decided everything. She freed herself from the last piece of clothing and rubbed against me, skin on skin, drawing a low moan from me that I couldn’t hold back. She was warm, firm, alive, and the contact sparked me in a new way.

We kissed again while we touched each other, without haste and with haste at the same time. I held her with one hand, surprised by how much I liked it; she grabbed my ass firmly, claiming my body as if it were already hers.

All at once she gently turned me around and pressed me against the sink. I saw our blurred reflections in the steam-stained mirror. She spoke in my ear, her voice rough.

—I want to do it here. Now. With you.

My heart pounded against my ribs. The thrill of knowing where we were, of hearing the distant murmur of the auditorium in the background, had me on the edge. I nodded without thinking twice.

She pulled my pants down to my ankles. She took her time, prepared me carefully with her fingers, until I felt the firm pressure looking for its place.

—Relax —she told me, placing a hand on my lower back—. Slowly.

And she entered. Slowly, steadily, without stopping. I felt myself opening little by little, a mix of pressure and something I couldn’t name. A shiver ran all the way up my spine. I clenched my teeth not to shout and let out a muffled groan.

***

When she was all the way inside, she stopped. She let me breathe. She stroked my chest beneath my T-shirt, nibbled gently at my neck, and only then did she start moving. At first soft, almost tender, attentive to every reaction of mine. Then, when she felt me surrendering, harder.

The sound of our hips blended with my ragged breathing and the metallic echo of the empty bathroom. The possibility that someone might come in at any moment didn’t scare me: it turned me on even more.

Renata held me by the hips with both hands, setting the pace, sure of every movement. I was helpless, trembling, completely in her hands, amazed at how good I felt being like that.

At one point she brought a hand around to the front and started stroking me while she kept moving inside me. That double sensation made me lose the last bit of control I had left. I could feel I was close, that I wouldn’t last much longer.

—Let go —she whispered in my ear, never stopping.

And I did. I came with an intensity I didn’t remember, braced against the sink, shaking from head to toe, my breathing shattered. A second later I felt her tighten behind me, hold back a rough moan, and finish too, pressed against my back.

We stayed like that for a few moments, panting, sweaty, pressed against each other while our pulses slowly returned to normal.

***

I turned to look at her. I half expected awkwardness, a rush to leave. Instead, she kissed me with a tenderness that didn’t fit the brutality of a moment before, and brushed a strand of hair off my forehead.

—Too much for you? —she asked, with a half smile.

—That was the most intense thing I’ve ever experienced —I answered, and it was true.

She laughed softly and kissed me again. We straightened our clothes as best we could, with nervous laughter, and went back into the theater as if nothing had happened, our hearts still racing.

The movie was still exactly where we’d left it, as if the world had gone on without noticing a thing. But I was no longer the same man who had come in looking for a dark place where he wouldn’t have to think. I could hardly believe what had just happened, and at the same time I was dead certain of one thing: I wanted to see her again, I wanted to do it again, I wanted to understand better that part of myself Renata had just woken up all at once.

Before sitting down beside me again, she leaned in and whispered in my ear one last time.

—Next time —she murmured— you pick the place. And make it even riskier.

I smiled in the darkness, my heart still racing and her promise echoing in my head while the credits were still far away. Who would have told me that an empty late-night screening, which I’d gone to in order to get away from everyone, would end up teaching me more about myself than any workweek ever had.