The apartment unit neighboring ours has a bathroom window that is about six feet away from our bathroom window. It is almost summer in San Francisco and we have no air conditioning in our studio apartment (most buildings in San Francisco don’t have air conditioning, due to the mild summers). So we keep our bathroom windows open all the time.

The window is built into the shower wall. It is high enough in the wall, that I can stand flat-footed in the tub, and the bottom of the window barely reaches my shoulders. Still, there is some lack of privacy from having an open window as part of your shower wall. The neighboring unit used to be vacant, so there was no problem with showering without a shade over the window.

About two months ago, our neighbors moved in. I believe it is another young couple. Lately, the young woman and I have gotten into a habit somehow of showering at the same time. I will get in and turn on the water and start to shower, and then I will hear the metal rings pulling across the shower rod from the open window across, and I know it is her getting in.

At first, I dared not look. I even arranged shampoo bottles on our window sill so as to create a barrier. One day, I caught a glance of her. As I reached to grab a bottle from the sill, I saw her brunette hair tied up on the top of her head. That is all I could see.

She is not tall enough to see above the sill over into our window, unless she were to stand on her tippy-toes or climb up onto the edge of the tub. But she must hear the water from our faucet and my occasional absent-minded shower singing. Still, we are complete strangers, for all intents and purposes. So we shower together, six feet apart.

She is not tall enough
To see above the sill
And we shower together
Six feet apart