Stick In Rome

Stick called me from Rome the other night! It was so great to talk to him!

And then he mentioned the Subject About Which We Do Not Speak. A lot of couples have one, an issue that’s tacitly acknowledged but never really discussed. In my case, there’s something Stick does every day while I’m in China and I know he does it. Things would be different if I were around, but I’m not. I know it’s essential to his well-being and keeps him happy and all that, but I just don’t want to hear about it.

“…and the food is really good.” he said, six times zones away and somehow unaware of how upsetting this sentence would be.

“That’s nice. Don’t tell me about it.” I said.

“…even in the dorm, it’s really good,”

“Really. Do not talk about Western food.”

“We’re getting a lot of pasta and tomatoes and…”

“Stick! Stop it! I can’t listen to this! You do NOT tell the party who’s living in China about food that’s not horrible. It’s just not fair! It’s cruel and you’re being totally inconsiderate! If you cared about me at all, you’d pretend that at least the dorm food was yucky!”

“You’re my girlfriend and I’m going to tell you what I did today and that’s final!”

No consideration, that boy. None.