Daily Ick: Your Catch-Up Has Occupied the Doorway

Picture a café doorway on a drizzly morning. Two friends spot each other, stop for a delighted catch-up, and settle into the exact patch of floor connecting outside with inside.

Behind them, someone holding a takeaway coffee begins the delicate shuffle of a person hoping to become visible without becoming an incident.

This is an illustrative scene. The coffee is imaginary; the doorway has a very clear job.

A lovely reunion in a highly specific location

Today's nomination is the conversation that takes root in a doorway.

Not a brief greeting. Not someone pausing to find their bearings. The full reunion, complete with follow-up questions, shopping bags and the unmistakable posture of people who have decided they live here now.

There is plenty of room nearby. Somehow, the narrowest point has been selected as the ideal venue for discussing the weekend.

The waiting person tries a small smile. Then a slightly larger smile. Eventually they offer a polite excuse-me, which seems to surprise the gathering. Other people are using the entrance? At this hour? To enter?

Everyone shifts just enough to create a gap requiring the coffee to travel separately from its owner.

Then the conversation resumes in its original formation.

The tiny ick is that moment when a shared passage becomes somebody's private lounge. Nobody meant to appoint a doorkeeper, but passing through now requires a verbal application.

A friendly conversation deserves better accommodation. So does the person trying to get to a table before their toast arrives.

A fair defence

Running into someone unexpectedly is lovely. Attention goes towards the familiar face, and the surroundings briefly fade.

People may also need time to orient themselves, manage bags or work out where to go. A pause is not evidence of selfishness, and nobody owes strangers an explanation for moving slowly.

The distinction is between needing the space and forgetting it is shared.

A courteous request and a little patience usually solve more than an elaborate sigh. Equally, once someone points out the blockage, moving the whole conversation aside is kinder than opening a temporary human cat flap.

Ick or innocent?

Our subjective verdict: an accidental doorway reunion is innocent. Repeatedly resealing the entrance after every interruption earns a small, weather-exposed ick.

Keep the catch-up. Find a corner. Let the door continue its promising career as a door.

Ick or innocent? Would you notice your conversation blocking the entrance, or would the queue have to join in?

*Daily Ick is original observational humour. This café scene is invented for illustration, not a reader submission.*