Scott the Dad stands in front of the mirror in his bathroom. He is looking intently at his toothbrush. It is the middle of the afternoon. The door is open. His wife Celeste walks by with a basket of laundry. She notices him but goes on to their bedroom just down the hall. A moment later she walks by the bathroom again. She makes a few steps past but slows to a stop and then backs up to stick her head around the corner. He is still holding his toothbrush in front of him, investigating it. She waits for him to notice her in the door way. Scott turns slowly to look at her. As he sees her face, she gently and subtly lifts her chin up in inquisitive acknowledgement.
"Hey...what's goin' on there?" she says.
Scott realizes how silly he looks. He decides to overcome it by taking a firm and serious stance in explaining what he's doing.
He answers, "Well, my routine was thrown off this morning because I went back to bed after I dropped Emma off at school this morning...ya know I closed last night so I wanted a few more hours of sleep." He pauses, "I know I had coffee, but I can't remember if I brushed my teeth this morning. And now it's been too long from when I would have brushed and the toothbrush is dry, so I can't tell if it's been used. So now I'm just trying to retrace the day to remember if I brushed my teeth."
"Can I ask you something?" she says in a low firm tone, her voice pregnant with judgment.
"Ya." he says, but at this point, he knows he doesn't want her to ask.
"Humor me on this..." she says, increasing the sarcasm in her voice in such a low dose that if others were listening in, they would not have noticed, but he sure did."
"Oh boy..." he relents.
"What would be the downside of brushing your teeth again?" She walked on not waiting for his response.
Scott sticks his head out bathroom door watching her walk away. He struggles to find a response. He never found one.
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