Breaking Away in Barcelona

By Bennett Baumer

Barcelona has always been a city of love for me. The two other big cities in my life have been Madrid, full of smoky bar lust and sex in the park, and New York, with its Viagra-popping investors and an abundance of online dating. But Barcelona is about getting caught in the night rain and staking out a secluded doorstep with someone. It’s walking slowly in the Ramblas with your hands in each other’s back pockets talking about politics.

I met and last saw Gemma over a year ago. She attracted me because she was so Euro: cute accent, leg warmers, anarcho-mullet and a curvaceous body to boot. I was in Barcelona for only a couple of weeks. Both of us were in the wedding of mutual friends and during the reception we split to the grocery store to buy more booze for the guests (there was no shortage of liquor!). Our short time together was like that – breaking away for small excursions returning with loot.

One cold day on the beach I told her I was attracted to her, though she had just come off a passionless relationship with a long-term boyfriend and didn’t know what to say. Months before, Gemma had returned to the apartment they shared and a “Dear John” letter told her he had found everything she wasn’t in another woman.

Later that night we warmed up on her couch to wine and each other. I pushed her emotionally to come out of the shock of being left by her boyfriend. We had awkward sex, and she asked me if I was going to leave or spend the night. I stayed and we spent the next couple days together. Gemma challenged me to make love to her with passion and I explored her body like a one-man search and rescue team. As we writhed and moaned under the duvet, one of us would pull away only to embrace again. Each night the sex grew more intimate and comfortable; Gemma reacquainted herself with desire and feeling, and I wanted her more and more.

After leaving to spend a few days in Madrid, I returned to Barcelona and went straight to Gemma’s house for a quickie before dinner plans.

We spent our last night together naked in bed and realized how intense our time had become. I got on a plane the next morning and Gemma got over her boyfriend.