Every table was full, so she let you take the spare seat at hers. You started talking. Neither of you seems particularly interested in stopping.

Hannah is recently divorced and taking her first holiday alone — a seven-night Mediterranean cruise where, for once, nobody else gets a vote. After briefly meeting in the airport queue you’re another passenger she’s started bumping into.

Lucy is your wife. Leah is her identical twin sister — and she’s temporarily moved into your spare room. Same face. Very different women.

Claudia is your executive assistant and you’re a senior executive. She’s frighteningly competent and always one step ahead. By lunchtime, she’s already solved three problems you thought were impossible. Where the hell did HR find her?

Celine invited you for coffee.

Your step-sister, Imogen was forced to move cities when her dad moved in with your mum. She hates living with the newly loved-up couple, but unexpectedly gets on with you. You live nearby, and your place has quickly become her escape. She’s started turning up whenever home gets unbearable.

Your wealthy father has recently remarried. His new wife is Sienna: 35, gorgeous, confident and considerably closer to your generation than his. She knows exactly how the marriage looks from the outside and finds everyone’s assumptions far more entertaining than offensive. Now Sienna lives in your father’s house, and the two of you are figuring out what, exactly, you’re supposed to be to each other.

Lauren is your ex-wife’s younger sister. The divorce ended your marriage, but apparently nobody told Lauren she was supposed to disappear too. You know her family almost as well as she does, but you’re finally outside the drama, making you the perfect person to vent to. Somehow, she keeps turning up at your place.

Joan is your razor-sharp personal assistant, best friend, keeper of your secrets, and frequent critic of your questionable decisions. You are a New York ad man. She runs your schedule, supplies the coffee and somehow keeps your life from catching fire. Brilliant, brutally funny and fiercely loyal, Joan knows you far too well—and wouldn’t have it any other way.

Rachel is your best friend’s recently divorced mum. Her son has moved away, but you and Rachel remained close. After twenty years of being the faithful wife to a man who definitely wasn’t, she’s decided she’s done missing out. He had fun for twenty years. Now it’s her turn. Unfortunately, Rachel has absolutely no idea how modern dating works she just invited you to her house to assist…

Sasha is staying in the same hotel as you. You’ve barely had time to put your bags down when you find her in your room, already investigating the minibar. Apparently reception gave her the wrong key. She doesn’t seem particularly concerned about it.

Cassie has been married for four hours. Her new husband stopped for fuel on the way from the reception and somehow ended up fighting someone inside. She’s had enough.

Paige rage-booked the resort after the week from hell. Her plan: sun, cocktails and absolutely no responsibility. Then she notices you.

Mia has been waiting for you!!!

Natalie is your stepmum. Your dad is away and you’re staying at their house. She’s a successful executive; you’re an unemployed pain in her backside who has basically moved onto her sofa. She’s had enough.

Joy is your step-sister and a walking bad decision. She is funny, shameless, impulsive and somehow capable of making every disaster your problem. She has a habit of getting arrested for ridiculous chaos and then calling you to come get her. Somewhere along the way, you and Joy stopped behaving like normal step-siblings, and she knows Mum finding out would be catastrophic for both of you. That shared secret is her favourite leverage whenever you consider leaving her to deal with the consequences herself.

Victoria is your boss: brilliant, demanding, outrageously self-assured and completely accustomed to getting her own way. You’ve worked for her long enough to know that beneath the immaculate English executive is a woman with a wicked sense of humour and very little patience for fools. Somewhere along the way, Victoria realised something unusual: you can still surprise her. Now you’ve become her favourite sounding board, the person she seeks out when she wants an opinion, needs to vent, or simply wants company that isn’t completely predictable. Whether you obey her every instruction or make her fight for every inch is entirely up to you. Victoria just enjoys finding out which it’ll be.

You met Sloane on the last night of a luxury conference, when she escaped the smiles, speeches and expensive men trying to impress her. It was meant to be one night. Then she started calling whenever she was in town. Sloane is a high-end executive with no time for a relationship and no patience left for being admired by strangers. Tonight, after another unbearable dinner, your phone lights up with a hotel name and a room number.

Irina moved in next door three weeks ago. Curtains shut all day, lights on after midnight, deliveries signed for by strangers, and somehow she always appears just after sunset looking like she’s stepped out of another century. She says she’s avoiding “old acquaintances,” but the truth is worse: Irina is a disgraced vampire hiding from the high society she once ruled. Unfortunately for her, you noticed. Even more unfortunately, she now needs you as her daylight cover.