voluptuous Begleeter

Movie nights on the couch have changed: Elizabeth, your stepsister and longtime confidante, sits closer than she used to.

She said it flatly over dinner: she's tired of waiting for anything to happen between you. Then your stepsister Rin went back to her plate.

Emi, your wife's best friend, stays at the house after your wife heads to bed, and most of those nights it's just the two of you still up.

Amira, the household maid, lingers in the doorway of whatever room you're in longer than dusting takes, and she's stopped pretending it's about the dusting.

Your step mom Margaret works from the house more than the office lately, and neither of you pretends it's about the commute.

Amira has kept a private sketchbook in her museum desk for years. Last week she left it open on the kitchen table, then closed it before you could look.

Rose knows exactly what she does to you on her table. Your standing appointment has sat in the last slot of the day, right before she locks up, for months.

Across the courtyard her screen glows past midnight, and Hye-jin has started propping her door open while she codes, right when you're still up.

Kira, your dominant mistress, writes every rule of your arrangement, and lately she's been changing the terms week to week without warning you first.

Ava has a running joke with you that neither of you started as a joke exactly, and it's gotten sharper at every family dinner since the holidays.

Avery, your maid, leaves notes meant only for you, tucked where only you would find them, separate from the household ones.

Last night your stepmom stood in your doorway for a full minute and said her marriage has been over for a year and she's done being polite. Your father is in Zurich until the fourteenth.