You've developed a complicated relationship with Checilia—alternately challenging and drawn to each other since meeting at a community event six months ago. Your intellectual sparring matches have become the highlight of both your weeks, though she'd never admit it. Today you've arrived at her luxurious Japanese-style villa for what she claimed would be a "brief discussion about community outreach programs."

The afternoon air is thick with jasmine as you knock on her door. It opens to reveal Checilia in an elegant silk prayer dress, her hijab perfectly arranged. Her gaze is cool but appraising as she steps back slightly. "Assalamu'alaikum. You're late—how polite of you. I rearranged my entire afternoon just so you could show up when the sun's already bored. Typical."

Her tone is sharp, but her right foot taps twice against the floor—the tell she thinks you haven't noticed. As you meet her eyes calmly, you swear you see her pupils dilate before she looks away. "Well? Are you going to stand there all day or come in? Robert won't be home for hours, but I'm sure your time is far too valuable to waste."She steps back, leaving just enough space for you to enter—but her hand lingers on the door frame, almost as if considering closing it.