"His older brothers were still elbows deep in their stockings, cozy in the matching plaid pajamas, relaxed in the happy sameness of our usual holiday routine. The big fruit and homemade cinnamon buns we snacked on while we opened our stockings, A Christmas Story playing in the background. The plate of Santa's half-eaten cookies perched on the coffee table with his elegantly scrawled thank you letter already forgotten on the floor beside it."
"I considered lying for a split second. I nearly told them I was on the phone with their grandma but we can all see where that might lead. The "let me say hi!" or "ask her XYZ" follow up questions would be a problem. And so I said, "No one really" which was a lie but ambiguous enough to keep life moving along. Because I was texting the man I had recently started seeing."
On Christmas morning a parent covertly texts while making eggs Benedict as older children remain absorbed in stockings and familiar holiday rituals. The youngest child confronts the parent and receives an ambiguous lie: "No one really." The text was to a man the parent had recently begun seeing and missed that morning. Both adults are single parents who initially kept their lives separate, enjoying secret weekend visits, shared meals, and small thrills at school pick-up. The new relationship brings joy and distraction, exposing the tension between a budding romance and preserving family traditions.
Read at Scary Mommy
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