Downstairs

Cherie is standing in the foyer, her shopping bags clutched in her hands, her heart hammering as she hears the guest room door open upstairs.

Alexis leads Mike down the stairs. She’s replaced her bikini, but she looks thoroughly "unraveled." Mike follows her, looking more physically imposing and confident than ever, the guilt you suppressed having been replaced by the thrill of the "Golf Gambit."

As they reach the bottom, they walk right past a stunned, wide-eyed Cherie. Alexis pauses for a heartbeat, catches her sister’s gaze, and gives her a slow, deliberate wink—a silent confirmation of exactly what Cherie suspected was happening upstairs.

"See you Saturday, Mike," Alexis calls out as he slips out the front door.

Cherie stands frozen for a moment, the bags feeling heavy. She walks into the kitchen, her mind a whirlwind of Alexis’s boldness and the raw, masculine energy Mike just trailed through the hallway.

You manifest beside her—not as a vision, but as a helpful, domestic ****. As she begins to unpack the groceries, she finds the heavy jars of pasta sauce and the milk cartons being lifted from the bags by "gravity" and placed perfectly on the shelves. The refrigerator door opens on its own as she approaches.

Cherie's shocked look returns.

He's helping me. Mack... he's here. Alexis is having her way with the neighbor, my daughters are acting like sirens in the pool, and I’m here making dinner with a ghost. Why does this feel more like home than any house I’ve ever lived in?

You stay with her, the "Lord of the Manor" assisting the lady with her chores, ensuring the kitchen is a temple of order before the chaos of dinner begins.