Quickie on the beach

Real men. Real bodies. Desires that ignite in the most ordinary places: a run at dawn, a deserted beach, a glance that lasts a second too long. In Quickie on the Beach, Manuel García recounts male eroticism in its most authentic and carnal form-made up of skin, smells, and silences that say more than words. It is not pornography: it is tension, instinct, virility that finds its mirror and its challenge in another man.

In the story that gives the collection its title, a man tired of isolation runs away from home to run along the Copacabana beach. The air is heavy, the city deserted. Then, amid the sound of the waves and his labored breathing, a boy appears with a box of chocolates and a smile that can be glimpsed under his mask. It is a chance encounter, destined to last only a few seconds, but it becomes a spark. All it takes is a gesture, a step too far, a silence that weighs like a touch.

The sea was gray and the sand cold. He had taken off his mask, and the wind blew his hair over his eyes. I approached him, still sweaty, my heart beating as if I had run for miles. We looked at each other. Then he smiled, and that smile said it all: hunger, fear, the need to touch someone, finally.

García's writing is physical, direct, steeped in reality. Each story is a fragment of male life, where desire arises from a clash, a trial of strength, or a moment of surrender.

On the beach, in the salty air and silence of the still world, two men meet. The rest is inevitable.