Baffled In The Background

Today, I crashed a zoom call by accident.

I spent the morning working from the coffee place around the corner. It has tall ceilings and skylight windows that brighten things up even when it's cloudy. It was super sunny out today, though, so the space was extra vibrant. That'd also made for quite a nice walk over.

Standing up from my table, I'd crossed the room to use the bathroom. This is one of those places that lines the perimeter with a row of two-tops along the wall, and hangs for-sale art between them. That's what I'd been looking at as I made my toward the single-occupancy bathroom door at the back. It's a red one with one of those stereotypical black signs, with the white figures on it, to indicate anyone of any gender's welcome to use it.

I knocked and listened. When no objection came, I went in.

When I opened the door to return to my table, I kind of froze. The door swings outward and, as I closed it behind me, I caught a glimpse of the laptop screen at the nearest table along the wall. I was looking at a really well-lit version of... me? And then at a whole bunch of other Brady Bunch zoom boxes full of people next to mine.

You gotta be kidding...

First of all, who the hell takes a call at the table next to the bathroom? And second, why would have your camera on, without any blur or custom background if your only alternative is the bathroom door at some coffee shop full of patrons going in and out??

As I walked out of frame and sat down at my table, I looked over at the guy whose meeting I'd barged through. He wore wiry glasses and a T shirt, with his mid length curly hair doing entirely its own thing up there. And he was talking. From what I could tell, he really couldn't care less that bathroom goers were crashing his zoom call. Which, made absolutely no sense to me. All I could focus on was that he was the only guy at the table... so why not at least sit on the other side?

I was so uncomfortable for him that it felt like my shoulders were trying to swallow my neck. But then I realized that if he didn't care, why should I? And while that made sense logically, I couldn't get my body to let it go.

Bright light washed over the room and a low murmur wafted through the air as people went about their day like normal; just reading, typing, and chatting away.

But I just sat there, baffled in the background.

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Our Daily MAP Year Prompt
172/365

What's something you've witnessed someone do in public that completely baffled you? Does it still, or can you see where they're coming from now?

onward.

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