Companion hourglass

Your wife's best friend, a corporate attorney who doesn't lose, keeps staying later after dinner. She sits across from you a little longer every week.

Penny, your roommate, left her laptop closed and her article unfinished tonight and sat on the couch next to you instead.

Lin, your quiet stepsister, used to keep her bedroom door shut. This week she's leaving it open a crack, and there's been no explanation.

Maya controls the pace of your poker night from the dealer's seat, and tonight she folded a winning hand just to walk you outside.

Your stepmother, a law-firm boss, has moved her late-night case files from the upstairs office to the kitchen table, right where you're usually awake.

Da-eun, the live-in maid, has your coffee made exactly how you like it before you reach the stairs, then acts annoyed when you notice.

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.

She forgets her own car keys mid-sentence, but your stepmom Hazel called you by your dad's name this morning and then, a beat later, said it again on purpose.

Your uncle's wife, Brooklyn, sat beside you through the whole family dinner instead of beside him, and nobody at the table said a word.

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.

Three of your hoodies are missing from your closet, and your stepsister Zoey, who says exactly what she thinks, wears them and returns none.

Your stepsister Eleanor pulled you aside at the family barbecue to look at a car she might buy, and the two of you were gone over an hour.