Just Pull Hard

Last week I traveled to LA with my younger sister and her husband. We stayed here in Hollywood. One morning, we walked from our hotel to a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf across the street on Hollywood Blvd. We ordered our coffees and then moved over to the drink pick-up area and waited for our names to be called. Next to the drink pick-up counter was a unisex public restroom. The restroom's door was within just two or three feet of the pick-up counter. The door also had one of those intimidating handles that served as both door knob and vending machine. This was a "pay toilet." One puts a coin or token in the box attached to the door knob and the door then opens. My sister commented that the whole set-up was rather off-putting. No stranger to public toilets (I drink alot of water), I find these pay toilet set-ups easy to navigate and foil. I walked over to the door and said to my sister, "You don't really need a coin, you just have to pull really hard on the handle." And then I demonstrated: I pulled really hard on the handle and the door flew open. To our horror, a respectable looking man was sitting on the toilet clearly in the middle of a "no. 2." To his horror, most of the patrons in the coffee shop caught a glimpse of him in his compromised state. He instinctively jumped up to shut the door, but I was able to close it nearly as quickly as I'd opened it. I felt terrible. But that didn't stop us from making "no. 2" jokes the rest of the day.