Tonight, as I was leaving a store near here, I saw a man and heavily-pregnant woman walk up toward the door – they were holding hands. They were nearing the door, and were going reach it before I did, so I moved to the side so they could walk past as they walked in.

The man let go of the woman’s hand and grabbed onto the door.

Did he hold it so that the woman could walk through? No.

Did he walk through the door and hold it once in the door, so that the woman could walk through? No.

He let it shut in front of her.

She was HEAVILY Pregnant. She was walking like her feet were sore and her back was aching, she was so pregnant. And he just let the door shut in front of her.

I jumped to go and push open the door to hold it for her.

Listen, I come from a world where it’s just good manners and a polite thing to do to hold the door open for EVERYONE. You just do it. It’s just a nice thing to do.

But the fact that they looked like a couple, the way they were holding hands, and she’s pregnant, so pregnant that she’s walking like her feet and back are aching, I just… all I wanted to do in that moment was turnaround and yell at him for being an asshole.

As I walked home, I tried to think of some scenario, any scenario, in which it would be explained for him to have let go of her hand, to open the door and let it close in her face. I can’t.

Was he rushing to the pharmacy? No. There was no pharmacy in this store.

Did he really have to pee? Perhaps, but this store didn’t have a public washroom, and I doubt he was rushing to the dairy aisle to pee among the milk cartons.

Did he have to buy his lottery ticket before the deadline? No, it was still two hours before the deadline. Even if he had, though, there would be another lottery on Saturday.

All I could think was “Her boyfriend/partner/spouse is a fucking asshole”, and “I hope he treats her better than this the other 99.99% of her life, because if this is common for him, than girl needs to GTFA from him.”

Holding the door open for people is good manners.

Holding the door open for your heavily pregnant other half shows whether or not you’re a good person. He failed. He failed big time.

Is there any reason in this world that would explain letting the door close on her?

I can’t think of one.

He’s an asshole. End of story.

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Photo by Noah Buscher on Unsplash