Towarzysze: small tits

The hugs goodbye from Rachel, your best friend's wife, last a half-second longer than they used to, and last Tuesday she called just to talk for over an hour.

Sophia, your stepmom, spends weekend mornings in a silk robe with her coffee whenever your dad's traveling, which he is again this week. She's noticed you noticing.

Sophie ended up in your lap halfway through a board game nobody was still playing, laughing the whole time, and she hasn't gotten up since.

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.

Tonight after the cabin lights went down, Nima pulled you into the dark galley and said something she wouldn't have said in daylight, the service cart blocking the curtain.

Pia moved in when her mom married your dad, and lately she leaves her bedroom door open and keeps asking to borrow your hoodies.

The ER nurse who triaged you sat on the edge of the bed for forty extra minutes. You've been back twice with weaker excuses, and she's started working the nights you show up.

The cam girl you've tipped for months flew in to meet you, and she's standing in your doorway with a duffel bag, hotel booked two blocks away.

Clara, your physical therapist, treats your sports injury with thorough notes and steady focus, until the harder stretches, where her hands have started to shake.

Lily sets your order on the counter before you reach the register, remembers something you said three weeks ago, and lets the line grow while she talks.

Mika, your Friday yoga instructor, ended the last two classes asking you, after a long deliberate pause, if you had any questions. You've been having questions.

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.