Voyeur

I checked the terrace cameras and discovered that my neighbor’s daughter had been watching us in silence from behind the curtains for weeks.

When I found the neighbor peering over the wall, I didn’t cover up. I dropped my bikini top under the patio shower and let him see as much as he wanted.

I turned the living-room light down so she wouldn’t see me, but when the sheet started moving beneath her hips, I knew I wouldn’t be sleeping that night.

I went for water at two in the morning and the blue TV light stopped me cold. My son was on the sofa, and I couldn’t look away.

She went down to dinner without panties or a bra. She said she didn’t know what was wrong with her, but I was starting to understand: that day she was going to cross every line.

That first night, Vega crossed the hall barefoot, entered the master bedroom, and sat on the king-size bed. What they did in the neighborhood cot no longer had to be hidden.

I arrived at the concert expecting him to take me to bed. It never crossed my mind that it would be his girlfriend who would drag me into the bathroom after the third song.

That night I went downstairs for a glass of water and never made it to the kitchen. What I saw in the shadows of the corner left me frozen there for a whole hour.

I’m 41, and that early morning I accepted a much younger couple’s invitation to a rehearsal space. What happened changed my idea of desire.

When she got out of the car to meet another man, I knew that night would no longer belong only to me. I didn’t expect her to ask me to pay for the room from my phone.

A blue robe, a book, and one careless moment. One look through the window across the street was enough to change my morning forever.

When Bruno looked up from his monitor and saw his boss staring at his mother, he knew he had two options: make a scene or stay silent.

I went down to the bathroom at three in the morning and heard my aunt’s laugh behind the curtain. My father appeared behind me with the same conspiratorial smile.

Lorena took off her pareo in front of everyone and chose me to count the thirty seconds. Meanwhile, my wife slept in the cabin, suspecting nothing.

When he yanked the towel off me on the porch and the neighbors stopped dinner to stare, I knew that summer was going to be very different from the one I’d imagined.

My friends were strolling past the display windows laughing. I stopped in front of hers and, by the way she looked back at me, I knew that night wasn’t for them.

When he saw the door ajar and recognized his sister inside, against the wall, the last thing he expected was to stand there watching, unable to move.

She was fifty-two, trapped in a lukewarm marriage, and wearing lace stockings for the first time. She didn’t expect the man who would board two stops later.

I turned off my bedroom light so I could watch him better without being seen. One dawn he turned toward my window, smiled, and I knew I’d never been the only one watching.