The entire house went quiet.
Dan stared at her.
“What?”
Susan pointed.
“The door. Close it.”
His expression shifted from anger to disbelief.
“You too?”
She folded her arms.
“I’ve been telling you for years.”
I sat up.
“Years?”
Susan looked at me.
“Twenty-eight, if we’re counting.”
Dan said, “Oh, come on.”
“No.”
Her voice changed.
I’d heard Susan irritated before.
This was different.
Tired.
“You started doing it when the boys were teenagers because you thought it was funny.”
Eric looked up.
“What?”
His mother nodded.
“You and Matthew used to complain.”
Eric’s face changed.
I turned toward him.
“You complained too?”
He said nothing.
That hurt more than I expected.
Dan waved one hand.
“Boys don’t care about that stuff.”
Eric finally looked at him.
“I did.”
Dan stopped.
Eric swallowed.
“I hated it.”
I stared at my husband.
“Then why didn’t you say anything when I asked him to stop?”
He looked ashamed.
“I don’t know.”
Dan scoffed.
“Because it isn’t a big deal.”
Susan snapped, “It is to everyone except you.”
Silence.
Dan stood up so abruptly that I immediately looked away.
A second later, the bathroom door slammed.
I stared at it.
Susan stared too.
Then she looked at me.
“Well.”
I blinked.
“That worked faster than I expected.”
She started laughing.
Not politely.
She leaned against the wall and laughed until tears came out.
Even Eric smiled.
From behind the closed bathroom door, Dan shouted, “I can hear you!”
Susan laughed harder.
I wish I could say that was the end.
It wasn’t.
The next morning, Dan was waiting for me at breakfast.
He had the expression of a man preparing to address Congress.
“Sit down.”
I remained standing.
“Why?”
“We need to establish some boundaries.”
I almost admired him.
“Absolutely.”
Susan turned away so he wouldn’t see her smile.
Dan continued.
“You embarrassed me in my own house.”
“I sat in a hallway.”
“You deliberately positioned yourself outside the bathroom.”
“Yes.”
“To make me uncomfortable.”
“Yes.”
He blinked.
Apparently, he had expected denial.
I poured coffee.
“I wanted you to understand what it feels like when another person decides your discomfort doesn’t matter.”
He folded his arms.
“That’s different.”
“How?”
“Because I was using the bathroom.”
“Exactly.”
He opened his mouth.
Closed it.
Then tried another direction.
“You are a guest here.”
“I know.”
“And guests respect the people whose home they’re staying in.”
“Agreed.”
“So—”
“Do hosts respect guests?”
He stopped.
I sat down.
“I’m not asking you to change your religion, Dan. I’m asking you to shut a door while you’re using the toilet.”
Susan made a choking sound into her coffee.
Dan glared at her.
Then he looked at Eric.
“Anything to add?”
Eric put down his fork.
For once.
Yes, I noticed.
He looked at his father.
“Close the door.”
Dan stared at him.
“What?”
“She’s right.”
The words were simple.
They still made my chest tighten.
Dan looked genuinely betrayed.
“You’re taking her side?”
Eric shook his head.
“This isn’t sides.”
“Everything is sides when somebody comes into my house and starts making rules.”
“No one made a rule.”
“She staged some ridiculous protest.”
Eric nodded.
“Because you humiliated her at breakfast.”
Dan laughed.
“I told her the truth.”
“You told my wife she doesn’t get to talk because she doesn’t own a house or have kids.”
“That’s not what I said.”
“It is.”
Dan turned to me.
“Did you run upstairs and repeat everything?”
“I was sitting there.”
Eric’s voice sharpened.
“I heard you.”
That shut him up.
Then Eric said something I had not expected.
“And I should’ve said something then.”
I looked at him.
He looked at me.
“I’m sorry.”
I didn’t answer immediately.
Because yes, I wanted the apology.
But part of me was furious it had taken a folding chair for him to find his voice.
Dan pushed away from the table.
“This is unbelievable.”
Susan said, “No, what’s unbelievable is that four adults have now spent two days discussing a bathroom door because you refuse to move your hand six inches.”
I loved her a little in that moment.
Dan stormed out.
The front door slammed.
Susan calmly buttered her toast.
“Where’s he going?”
She shrugged.
“Probably Home Depot. That’s where he goes when he thinks we’re all idiots.”
Eric laughed.
I didn’t.
Not yet.
