Left Unsaid.

“Hey.”

“Hi.”

“How was your day?”

“It was a day.”

“Okay. I’m so glad I asked.”

“I bet.”

“Look, are we ever going to talk about this? We need to talk about it.”

“About what?”

“Come on, don’t be like this.”

“Like what?”

“Don’t make everything so difficult.”

“I’m not the one using ambiguous language.”

“You know what I mean.”

“In which instance? You’ve used ambiguous language twice in the last thirty seconds. Once to insult me.”

“I just don’t want us to go on like this.”

“There you go again.”

“No, there you go again! You know exactly what I mean, but you always need me to say everything explicitly, like you think it makes you better than me somehow. Like you think it means you’re all honest or whatever. Well it doesn’t. It doesn’t make you look anything except stupid, because—”

“Oh, great! You—”

“Because you need everything explained to you, like you can’t even remember what happened a week ago, or like you can’t draw any conclusion about what I’m talking about unless it’s all mashed up and fed to you on a spoon. That’s what you really look like when you do that.”

“Oh wow. Okay. So you call me stupid, but I’m the one who has a superiority complex. See, this is the whole problem, right here.”

“Right here? Really? All of this is only because of me, then? That makes perfect sense. It never has anything to do with you or your issues, right? Because you’re so wise and perfect. Sure.”

“All of this. Well, what exactly? What are you talking about this time? How are we ever supposed to have a dialogue if you can't even say what you mean?”

“It’s the same thing! It’s all the same thing. It’s this attitude you put on; like I’m uneducated or something, and you know what? I probably do look like that next to you. Probably everybody does, if you look at them through your eyes. So if that’s what you were going for, congratulations. You’ve done it.”

“That has never been what I was ‘going for’. Obviously I don’t think I’m better educated than you. I couldn’t care less about that, and you know it, too. You’re just looking for another excuse to play the victim. Just like you always do.”

“I’m not trying to play the victim. I just don’t think it’s all one-sided, like you do.”

“Is this all just a ploy so that you can put more words in my mouth that I never said? Because if so, I’ve got better things to do with my time than put up with any of that.”

“That is not what I’m trying to do here. And you can do whatever you want with your time. But we still need to talk at some point.”

“That ‘point’ was a week ago. When I wanted to. When I asked you to. Not while I’m right in the middle of cooking dinner. Or trying to, at least. Could you not lean against the pantry door? You're going to break it, and that's the last thing we need right now.”

“I’m sorry, okay? Is that what you want? I’m sorry that my emotional timing isn’t always perfectly synced with yours. What more do you want from me?”

“I don’t want anything from you right now. Just for you to move so I can get the mixing bowl out of that drawer.”

“Fine. Sorry. But you can’t sit here pretending there’s no tension. You’ve barely said a word to me beyond the absolute basics all week.”

“There’s nothing else to say, since you clearly don’t want to talk about what’s actually on my mind.”

“This whole thing literally started with me asking you if we could talk about it.”

“Only because there’s tension.”

“Well yeah. And I want the tension to go away.”

“So you don’t really want to talk. You're just trying to conciliate me. To pat me on the head and say 'there, are you all better now?' You just want things to go back to normal so that you want to be comfortable again.”

“Don’t you want that?”

“I want the cheese grater. No, I can get it, I just need you to get out of my way so I can get to the drawer.”

“So do you actually want to talk about this, or not? Because I can always just leave if you'd prefer that.”

“I think I made it fairly clear that I want to finish cooking this meal.”

“Okay. Cool. Works for me. But don’t keep on pouting and acting like I didn’t at least try.”

“And how about if we add ‘not to be insulted in my own kitchen’ to the list of things I want?”

“I’m not trying to insult you. You’re just making this impossible.”

“I’m making it impossible? I think you’re managing that pretty well on your own. You can’t even be bothered to make an attempt to discuss things when I want to, but I’m supposed to suddenly drop whatever I’m doing because you’ve decided you’re… I don’t even know, in the right mood, or something? Have the stars aligned for you right here and now, and this is the only opportunity? When I’ve got three things going all at once and can’t even focus? Look, that’s about to burn now.”

“I don’t expect you to drop what you’re doing. When did I ever say anything about dropping what you’re doing?”

“That’s not my point! My point is—”

“No, you know what it really is? You don’t actually want to talk about it any more than I do. You just want to stay mad and feel justified about it. Because you know if we actually sat down and had a discussion like adults, you’d have to admit that you were just as much to blame as I was.”

“So that’s what you think, huh?”

“Yeah. That’s what I think.”

“Fine. Dinner will be ready in half an hour.”