iv.
Ofelia took a circuitous route home just to waste some time so that she would be sure to miss Leonard. She would tell him about her date with Daniel over the phone. When she got home she said hello to Manuel, who was on the sofa reading a book, and headed for the bathroom.
"I love you too, Flaca." Manuel said sarcastically, lifting his head.
Dominga was out. Ofelia used the toilet first, something she had been needing to do since lunch-time, and took her leisure because she didn't want to have to go again later. She locked the door, but Manuel must have been too buried in his book to want to bother her.
In the shower she washed herself thoroughly, as never before. A tiny shadow of stubble had come in where she had shaved and was beginning to itch again. She would put some more cream on it when she got out of the shower. She ran her finger down the slit between her legs and rolled her eyes back, remembering Daniel's hands on her breasts, the way his penis felt through his slacks, like a big snake wanting to break free. She was sure it was bigger than Manuel's.
Her middle finger found her opening and nuzzled into it. She had never penetrated herself beyond the second knuckle, nor let any boy reach in any farther than that. She pushed her finger further and further inside her, but she could only reach so far, and she knew that Daniel's penis was much longer and much thicker than any finger. She worried, but only a little. Her vagina was very tight and gripped her finger snug as a bug. She squeezed her finger with it. She felt like she could crack a walnut in there, and rather than worry for herself, she was happy for Daniel, knowing how good her vagina would feel to him. One thing she knew was, men liked them tight. The tighter the better.
She washed herself in back and wondered for a moment whether Daniel would want to enter her there. She knew from some of her brother's magazines that men were alarmingly pre-occupied with that particular area. She saw pictures of giant members sunk inside those tiny openings, and she couldn't help but feel that there was something brutal about it. She hoped Daniel wouldn't ask to enter her there, but if he did, she wouldn't refuse. She took a soapy finger and could barely get it into that opening at all. Her heart gave a jump, feeling how much tighter it was than her vagina. The girls in those magazines must be out of their minds! she thought, and swallowed a slight feeling of panic.
Ofelia washed and washed, and even shampooed her hair again. She rarely did that more than twice in the same week. But she wanted to be radiant, perfect, for her lover. She would have shaved between her legs again if it weren't for the worry of causing herself a rash. She wanted to be smooth as satin for Daniel, all over. She wanted to maximize his pleasure and gave hardly a thought to her own. Then she corrected herself: not so fast, Ofie. You are thinking about your pleasure as much as you are thinking about Daniel's. Your pleasure depends on his pleasure, but it is your pleasure just the same. Ofelia Silva is nobody's sacrificial lamb.
When she finally came out of the shower she was stricken by something she hadn't thought of yet. Daniel had no idea she was a virgin. How could he? The way she acted, the number of men just at the mill alone who had fooled around with her. There was no way he would have assumed she was a virgin. She was fearful now, and terribly so. Her belly fluttered with anxiety as she dried herself. She felt the need to sit on the toilet again.
As she sat there she thought of how best to go about telling Daniel she had never had sex, just tons and tons of foreplay. And she thought to herself, won't that take away from his pleasure? Having to treat her so gingerly because she had never been entered before by a man? She couldn't just not tell him, because he would know as soon as he tried to get inside her. He would know just by the way she acted and reacted. She was good at role-playing and play-acting, but she doubted she could pull that off.
As she sat there she thought of something. It made a warm feeling well up inside her, even while it seemed completely crazy. That feeling of the need to sit down again turned out to be a false alarm, and Ofelia got up from the toilet. She opened the door of the bathroom and walked naked across the hall to her and Manuel's room. When she didn't see him in there she called out to him,
"Manuel, ven!"
"Guey!" came the mock-insolent answer.
"Ven!"
"Why?"
"Papi, Ven! Now!"
Manuel put his book down and obeyed his sister, finally. He was getting less adept at insolence when it came to her anyway. He was mumbling to himself when he went into their bedroom. His heart jumped into his mouth when he saw her sitting in bed with the covers up to her chin and a ridiculous smile on her face. Ofelia raised her eyebrows suggestively and her hand came squirreling out from under the blankets, one finger come-hithering to him. "Paaaa...piiii." she was saying softly, smiling, "Oh Paaaaa....piiiiiii."
"Aiy aiy aiy, mi amor. You are crazy aren't you? Like everybody says?" Manuel said, coming forward tentatively, afraid she might be possessed or something. "Did you eat something at that mill? I told you, Essa, that stuff will kill you."
Ofelia was giving her brother her prettiest smile, batting her eye-lashes, making the best of her dimples. Her wet hair only added to how fabulously and ridiculously sexy she looked. No human being ought to be that sexy, Manuel thought to himself. He came closer and closer, wondering what she was up to. "Are you like, naked under there?" he asked.
Ofelia smiled and reached out for him. She hooked her finger in the belt loop of his shorts and pulled him close to her. "I need you to help me with something, Papi." she said, looking up at him, batting her eyes in a way that was so obviously exaggerated the both of them burst out laughing. But Manuel didn't laugh for very long. In a moment he was dead serious, and a little bit cautious.
"You mean like last night? You wanna do that again?"
