Judith's mother, Margot, was spending a few days with us and on that Sunday evening we were watching some crappy US drama series on TV:
The bad guy burst into his cheating girlfriend's house to find only her mother there, a vocal exchange ensued, during which Mom refused to divulge her daughter's whereabouts and concluded with the intruder taking out his frustration on her: 'For what I want, the bitch will serve just as well as her whelp!'
Mom got dragged into a bedroom, where a clothes-ripping tussle ensued, concluding immediately before a commercial break, with the perpetrator walking out of the door, leaving a dishevelled and weeping Mom sprawled on the bed. It was typical mid-evening, programming so nothing graphic, but you got the idea.
As the adverts began Judith leapt up and headed for the kitchen, speaking to Margot as she crossed the room: "How about it Mum, can I rely on you to surrender your virtue to save mine?"
In the moment's pause it was me who answered; with a slap to Judith's bum as she passed, I growled: "A bit late for that babe; this bad guys taken yours long ago."
Judith laughed and continued to the kitchen while I turned towards Margot to gauge her response to my quip; our eyes met and held, Margot's expression was surprisingly serious when she eventually spoke: "True enough... but we could always pretend."
Nothing more was said, but our shared gaze only disengaged when Judith re-entered the room and I spent much of the night contemplating Margot's words.
Returning from work the following evening I found Margot in the hallway and greeted her with a growled enquiry: "Where's Judith... tell me where she is!" Anna was at her Pilates class, as we both well knew.
There followed a few seconds during which my heart raced - Had I guessed wrong? - before Margot replied in what to me at least, sounded a very believable New York-American accent "Fuck you ass-hole, I wouldn't tell ya even if I knew."