I stood in the hall while Vanessa began unzipping her suitcase, pulling out clothes and tossing them onto my office chair as if it were a hotel room.
I thought, with a quiet dread, my life is about to get complicated.
I didn’t yet understand how quickly complicated would turn into unbearable.
The first day, I tried to be patient. I told myself it was temporary, that I could handle a few weeks of disruption. I reminded myself that she was my sister, and that maybe this time would be different.
By the second day, my apartment didn’t feel like mine anymore.w
Vanessa’s presence expanded. Her things multiplied. A jacket draped over the dining chair. Makeup and brushes spread across the coffee table like spilled confetti. Shoes left in the middle of the hallway, forcing me to step around them. A damp towel abandoned on the bathroom floor.
