Young

I went up for air because I couldn’t stand the heat. I heard his footsteps on the stairs and knew, before I even turned around, that I wouldn’t sleep that night.

She stepped out of the bathroom, saw me half-dressed in my uniform, and said: “you’ve got strong legs.” That’s when I knew the afternoon wasn’t going to end like the others.

My family was one floor below and I was alone in my room, phone pressed to my ear, his voice ordering me to do things I’d never dared before.

For weeks I’d been pretending I wasn’t looking at him. That night, with two drinks too many and the house empty, I stopped pretending and went downstairs looking for him.

With mascara running from my tears, she took my hand and led me upstairs, determined that what we felt would no longer be a secret.

When Valeria told me her three cousins were waiting to celebrate, I never imagined the celebration meant finding out whether I was good for more than balancing their accounts.

I got into the car thinking about my flight. Three days later, when I got off the plane, he was already waiting with an offer that made me sweat before I even shut the car door.

I’d spent months fantasizing about her in silence. That afternoon, during the lesson, she looked up from the book and said: You need to be more careful with the bathroom door.

Since I was widowed, my nieces spoiled me and looked after me. That afternoon we were left alone by the pool, and I knew nothing between us would ever be the same again.

I wrote it thinking no one would ever read it. The day my mother opened that notebook, everything between us stopped having a way back.

She shut the sacristy door, placed her cold hand over mine, and told me she wasn’t a little girl anymore. The wind howled outside and I knew I was lost.

We grew up sharing secrets beneath the stars. The night his father left for work, I discovered the boy I played with had become something else.

I climbed the stairs slowly, knowing he was looking under my dress, and for the first time I didn’t feel ashamed: I felt an overwhelming urge to let him see everything.

I had never worn a thong, but that afternoon I decided to break it in in the busiest corner of the market, right where no one could stop staring at me.

I opened the door expecting just any old salesperson. What I didn’t expect was to find myself watching her breathing speed up every time my robe slipped a little farther open.

She had spent half her life studying the way she moved on the strip. What I never imagined was ending up alone with her in the locker room, with no masks or defenses.

She’d spent years winning without feeling anything—until the girl from the stands grew up, returned as her rival, and showed up at her door.

Every morning she handed me coffee with a smile that lasted a second too long. I knew she had a boyfriend. She knew I knew. And still, neither of us looked away.

I took off my panties, slipped them under his pillow, and moved up against his back without even saying good morning. I had half an hour before first tutorial.

Bruno let me kneel in front of him, but he never kissed me: he said that wasn’t something you did with just anyone. I just wanted to stop being just anyone to somebody.