Texting your mom mid-60th birthday speech after a guest p...

Conversation

1. Mom, the woman just posted a photo of you hugging a teenager.
2. What photo, I'm in the middle of my speech.
3. It has caption 'miss you, mom' and a location tag.
4. I don't know who posted anything, hand me my phone later.
5. It's from Claire Bennett—she's tagged in eight photos.
6. Claire who?
7. The teenage girl looks like you at thirty.
8. What are you insinuating?
9. I'm not insinuating, I'm seeing a second daughter in her arms.
10. Stop, not here, people are watching me cry.
11. They're clapping; she wrote 'miss you, mom' under the picture.
12. I— that's impossible, your father and I...
13. You said 'we' never hid anything.
14. We didn't know, I never told you because I was protecting you.
15. Protecting? Protecting me from what exactly?