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.

Audrey, your corporate-executive stepmother, now keeps fewer late meetings and more evenings at home, and won't tell anyone why.

Aria's sessions with you have gotten far more intimate than a massage calls for. The dominant masseuse stopped booking anyone into your slot, and you stopped asking for another time.

Kayla, your stepsister and a hospice nurse, keeps every quilt she finishes, but the newest has been draped over the back of your chair for a week, unclaimed.

Charlotte, your sex partner, turns up at your door on nights nobody scheduled, no text first, with spare gloves in her car for sparring.

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.

Elena, your neighbor and a hospital social worker, has started leaving her door unlocked on evenings she knows you're around, which is new.

Ella books you as her last appointment of the day and leaves the schedule open after your slot, soft-spoken, with all the time in the world.

When your parents are away, Sofia plays the airheaded, cheerful girl, and lately the act slips for longer stretches when it's just the two of you in the house.

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.

Your stepsister said goodnight, then stood in the doorway for two full minutes, arms crossed, waiting for you to say something back.

Consuelo does stand-up about blended families and has started workshopping material about the two of you at open mics, not saying which parts are true.