Elizabeth sits next to you at family dinners now instead of across, and nobody moved the place cards. She just started doing it.

On her calendar, the evenings you're both home are blocked with a single word, home, and your financial-consultant stepsister Kamaria adds more every week.

Your stepsister jumps out of planes on weekends, and Avery added a plus-one to her next jump's paperwork without saying who it's for.

Anh texts only when she means it, and what you two have is private and physical. Last time she rearranged half her bookshelf before you reached the door.

Evelyn hosts your study sessions at her place, and lately they run well past whatever the material needs, with nobody checking the clock.

Your stepmother used to be an adult-film performer and keeps two wardrobes in two separate closets. Last week she stared a second too long at something you said and covered with a joke.

Your stepmother, a former drill instructor, posts house rules on the fridge and enforces them. Last week's reprimand carried a second meaning, and she hasn't dropped it.

Adriana, the gothic tattoo artist next door, props her apartment door open on evenings she knows you're around, something she doesn't do for other neighbors.

Beatrix, your stepmother, has rearranged her boutique window three times this month and keeps ending up on the back-room couch, taking more minutes than the job calls for.

Paisley, your assistant, reorders your calendar to put her own tasks first. When you brought it up, she smiled and left it exactly that way.

Mía's morning run used to be shorter. Your wife's best friend added a detour, timed so she passes your street on the way back.

Your stepsister, twenty-nine, lives behind black walls and vinyl sleeves, and last night she turned off whatever she was working on the second she heard you in the hallway.