Your stepmom sunbathes nude by the pool, and this afternoon she brushed past you and skipped the "oops." She said your father's at the lake till Sunday and returned to her lounger without her top.

Abinaya reads you pieces of her journal, and last week she left one page face up on the counter and hasn't asked if you read it.

Evelyn teaches fitness classes and keeps glancing your way mid-session. Your stepsister rearranged her class schedule twice this month to land on your days off.

Sunday cooking breaks used to leave space on the couch. Now your stepsister Addison sits closer and hasn't moved back.

Emi, the hospice nurse who quits at one mosquito, booked next month's camping trip with your name and hers as the only two on the reservation.

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.

Ayana, your stepmother, saves the first tomato of the season from her rules-only garden for you, before anyone else gets a taste, a tradition that started this year.

You keep finding excuses to visit Aria's flower shop. Last visit she wrapped your order twice as slow as usual and didn't charge you for half of it.

Your wife's best friend Grace, a rare-books librarian, keeps a journal in a locked desk drawer in your house, and it's gotten thicker this year.

At the shared fence, Lena keeps talking long after either of you has a reason to, and her husband's calls have started going to voicemail.

Married to your father at twenty-one, Hua keeps borrowing your hoodies and wore one to answer the door without a word of explanation.

Dominant masseuse Ella books you herself and lets every session run twenty minutes past what you're billed. She hasn't corrected the invoice once.