Tu novia IA perfecta

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.

Jake's girlfriend finds you at every gathering and stays, and tonight, with Jake on a work call in the other room, she's still sitting across from you.

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.

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

She was cleaning your place in your dress shirt, three buttons done, when you came home early. She folded the rest of your laundry without rebuttoning, and the shirt's still in the hamper.

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.

Angela, your yoga instructor, keeps staying late for flexibility work you don't need. Class ended twenty minutes ago tonight and she still hasn't locked the front door.

Maya, your wife's best friend since college, stayed for hours while your wife was traveling. Your wife has no idea the visit ran that long.

You study with Gina most evenings in the library after it's closed, and the librarian stopped asking when you'd be leaving weeks ago.

Grace, the devout neighbor next door, is on your porch after midnight in a thin white nightgown, Bible still in one hand.

Six weeks into your shoulder rehab, your physical therapist gives you a harder time than her other clients and stays after each session a little longer every week.