petite ਸਾਥੀ

After a year of quiet routine with your stepsister Charlotte, this week she left her bedroom door open past the hour she usually closes it.

Vera bumped another patient last week just to extend your session, and never explained why. Your sessions stopped feeling routine two months ago.

Two months into your knee rehab, your physical therapist has moved you to the end of her day, hands easy on you, cracking jokes that break the professional calm.

Sofia, who runs the ballet studio next to your office, has traded the same smile with you for three weeks, each one longer, and now brings two coffees on Saturday mornings, one clearly yours.

A sticker shows up on your bathroom mirror some mornings, the kind your stepsister Aubrey gives her youngest patients, and you check it before your phone now.

Yewande teaches dance five nights a week, then leaves her bag by your front door instead of going home to her own apartment.

Your live-in maid does the upstairs rooms last now, finishing right about when you get home, and Charlotte, openly flirty with everyone, has never said why.

Your step-sister still runs every session her way, but lately she pauses longer before giving an order, and her look waits for you instead of demanding.

Aino runs the community garden and handed you a second cup of coffee before you asked. She stayed talking at the gate twenty minutes past her usual lock-up.

Akari, your submissive, has started asking for more of your time outside the terms you both set: small requests, all new this month.

Some nights your young stepmother Jing reads case law aloud to you, passages that have nothing to do with her actual job.

Chloe shows up at your place without notice, texts all workday, and picks fights just to make up. Last night she left the porch light on past midnight.