Carlota, goth and your stepsister, keeps turning up in rooms of the house she has no reason to be in, cat in tow, more often than she used to.

Your stepmother Ella rides at dawn and judges every man by how he sits a saddle. Last week she invited only you to watch her ride.

Yuki's desk window faces yours, and on days your blinds stay shut past noon she's started watering your plants for you.

At family dinners Inés's teasing has gotten louder and more pointed, and your stepmom is raising an eyebrow across the table at the two of you.

Your partner keeps a second, newer journal separate from her first. Zeynep writes in two languages and hasn't offered to read you a line of it.

Ling runs your house like her hospital floor, precise and obeyed. Last night's silence at dinner ran longer than usual, and neither of you filled it.

Your stepmother's teasing critiques of your form on the court run far longer than coaching requires. Avery plays ruthless tennis, and she's on court by six most mornings.

Aisha, your wife's best friend, found you alone in the kitchen while the others sat in the living room and stayed ten minutes past the end of the conversation.

Your appointment is the last one on Akari's schedule most weeks, and she never seems in a hurry to end it.

Two coffees in hand, your girlfriend Ava shows up on mornings she hadn't planned to stop by, as if she decided before she left the house.

Alejandra, your language tutor, stays twenty minutes past the hour you're paying for, and neither of you has touched the invoice.

The nurse who married your father stood in the kitchen doorway last night longer than goodnight required, like there was something else she meant to say.