Please Settle This,
I am writing this from the other side. I am the one with the dishes.
I work a late shift, so I cook dinner around 10:30 at night. By the time I eat, it is almost midnight, and I am dead on my feet. So I fill the pan with hot soapy water, put the plates in the sink to soak, and go to bed. Every morning, before work, I wash everything. Every. Single. Morning. I have never once left a dish for more than eight hours.
My roommate Alex is an early riser. 6 am, coffee, smoothie, the works. And apparently, every day for the last four months, Alex has walked into the kitchen and found my soaking pans in the sink, and has been quietly furious about it.
I found this out on Monday from a note. A handwritten note, on the counter, in very neat capital letters: "WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT THE SINK."
The conversation was rough. Alex said it is "gross to wake up to." That they cannot fill the blender. That the kitchen smells like garlic at 6 am. That they did not say anything sooner because they "did not want to be that roommate," which, respectfully, is exactly what a note in capital letters is.
I said they get washed. Alex said, "Wash them before bed, then." I said I am not doing dishes at midnight after a ten-hour shift. Alex said, "Then cook less complicated food."
Cook. Less. Complicated. Food.
We have not spoken since, except for a very formal "good morning." The sink has been empty, because I am now washing dishes at midnight out of spite.
Am I wrong? Or is overnight soaking a perfectly normal thing that grown adults do?
Signed,
Soaking, Not Slacking
Letters are written by NowSettled from the disputes people search for. Names and details are made up.
