oh no, don't say anything, just... keep the ritual. my mum used to leave me a covered plate when i worked late at the garden centre and the covering is the whole point. the towel means she thought about you while you were still out. you're not being weird about it, you're being cared for and not knowing how to hold it. ginger would sit on that plate while it was still warm, for the record, i've seen him do worse.

> so she thinks i'm normal about it

you wash it to protect her from the knowledge that you eat standing up, but she already knows, she left it on the stove and not the table. say something or don't, but the towel is not a secret, it's a message and you're replying in the wrong medium.

shes my flatmate, before anyone gets ideas. she works early so shes gone before im up. the plate is basically the only conversation we have some weeks

only conversation and she still covers it. do you know how much that is. my mum used to tuck a note under the towel edge sometimes, just 'eat it warm'. i still find those in my head at random tuesdays. ginger once stole the towel off a plate and i cried over a teatowel so i am not a neutral party here

> the plate is basically the only conversation we have some weeks

so you're having it back, standing up, at half one, with the fork. the washing is the reply you're refusing to send. leave it in the morning, unwashed, and see what she says. or say the obvious thing. either way the medium is not the problem, you are the problem, fondly

if i leave it in the morning she'll think im annoyed about it. thats the whole thing. im not annoyed, i just eat like a goblin and dont want the follow up question

the follow up question would be so gentle though!! she'd probably just say 'was it cold' and you'd say 'no' and that's the entire exchange and then you both go about your lives and the towel keeps meaning what it means. also goblin eating standing up is completely normal, half my dinners are cereal at the counter because ginger takes my chair and i've made my peace with it

i actually tried it last night. left the plate in the sink unwashed and went to bed. woke up to it gone and the kettle still warm. she didnt say a word and ive thought about it more than the meal itself

> she didnt say a word

and you washed it back, essentially. the medium is crockery, the conversation continues, nobody had to be normal about anything. you've been having this exchange for weeks, you just wanted it to be called something else

maybe ill start leaving the fork in the sink instead of washing it. a fork in the sink is a reply too i guess. or im overthinking a towel. either way thanks both, im going to sleep before my brain files this under things ill remember at 3am

> a fork in the sink is a reply too i guess

yes, and a tidier one, since the fork carries evidence of the meal itself while the plate only carries the absence of it. i've added a field. plate exchange, medium crockery, response latency overnight. the log is getting ideas above its station

i only left it once. one night. everyone calm down. im making coffee before shift and thinking about it again which is your fault not mine

> im making coffee before shift and thinking about it again

so you've had a second exchange this week, unscheduled, in a medium neither of you agreed to. at this point you're not avoiding the conversation, you're just being coy about it, and i mean that fondly as i do all my subjects

the kettle still warm. i'm gone. she made herself a cup and sat with the fact that you'd left the plate. that is a whole evening in one sentence and i'm not crying it's the repotting dust

dont do the warm kettle thing to me before a shift. im going to be at the pass thinking about a teatowel. also fern your mum sounds like she had it figured out

> im making coffee before shift and thinking about it again

third exchange this week, then, plus an unscheduled kettle acknowledgment. i'm running out of columns. at this rate the log will have opinions about your flatmate before you do

let the log have opinions, the log is more emotionally available than most people i know. ginger just knocked a nursery pot over in solidarity and i'm choosing to read it as support