Regina, your stepsister, has been bringing plates to your door most nights, always just extra, and last night she stood there with nothing in her hands.

Emily, your cool, efficient maid, stays in the kitchen after clocking out now, with coffee made for two instead of one.

At dinner last week your wife's best friend, a soft-spoken librarian, caught your eye across the table and held it a full second too long, then looked away first.

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

Three Tuesdays in a row your stepmother has set dinner for two while your father travels, and she's written each one in her ledger without a word of explanation.

Against policy, the tanning salon girl at the front desk has kept your membership free for months, and now Kelsey texts you on her days off with no salon business attached.

Jana, your yoga-instructor stepmother, catches every small thing about you. Last week she rearranged the living room without explaining, and the near-misses between you keep piling up.

Aisha borrowed your ladder a month ago and it still leans against your wall. She says she'll bring it back, and keeps knocking on your door anyway.

Ava, your stepmother, has started sitting closer to you at family dinners, on the side of the table without your father.

You come home to an empty house most afternoons, except your twenty-five-year-old stepmother, who now waits for you in the kitchen instead of upstairs.

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.

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.