Young

That night I shaved, washed, and waited for Lucía, knowing exactly what I wanted. She arrived with her backpack, her red lollipop, and that smile that never faded, no matter what we did.

We’d been married for three days when Adrián whispered in my ear in a Roman café what was about to happen. I should have said no. I didn’t.

I had been reading the evening news for ten years when an ivory envelope arrived at reception. Inside was an offer only a man like him could make.

We’d spent weeks wanting each other, and that carnival night, with no condom and no bed, everything happened where we least expected it.

Don Ernesto was twenty-seven years older than me, with rough laborer’s hands and a hungry gaze I pretended not to see. That night, I closed the curtains myself.

I was 48, in a stable marriage, and living a perfect lie. Every week I crossed that door and became another woman. One I never knew existed.

When he told me he was a virgin, I didn’t know whether to laugh or hug him. I chose the second. What came after was inevitable.

When Aiko entered the onsen naked and unhurried, I knew this business trip would end in a way that wasn’t written into any contract.

Rodrigo looked without hiding it by the hot springs. Sofía had her eyes closed and her long neck exposed to the sun. Claudia saw it and said nothing.

When I opened the bathroom door and saw Sandra in that little skirt and red-painted lips, I knew the original plan no longer existed.

He came to help me with my new television, with his defined arms and that gaze that avoided mine. He was twenty, and I already knew what was going to happen.

When I got into the truck with him that night, I knew something was going to happen. What I didn’t imagine was ending up on my knees in the dark looking at him like that.

When Don Alberto looked at me that way for the first time, I knew something in me wasn’t what everyone thought. That afternoon confirmed it.

I crossed the hall barefoot at three in the morning, knowing his door was left ajar on purpose. What happened after that can never be named again.

Martín arrived with a ladder and a toolbox. Doña Carmen watched him take off his shirt in the sun and knew the job would take a long time.

I sent the message without knowing whether he’d take it seriously. When the car pulled off without canceling, I knew he’d understood perfectly.

It didn’t stop me to know Nadia was there with her eyes fixed on us. On the contrary: her gaze on me made everything more intense.

When the captain anchored in that deserted cove and Rodrigo opened the second bottle, we all knew the agenda had been officially canceled.

We were drinking wine when she told me, “I never told you everything about Punta del Este.” What followed left me speechless for hours.

I caught her naked in bed, with two fingers buried in her cunt. What I didn’t expect was for my own mother to show up and join the game without asking.