Failure to commun'cate

Being a report on a conversation.

G turned up at midday and declared without much preamble that he and U had been astonished and annoyed to see that I had purchased and installed a monitor without discussing it with them. Which would be fair enough if it were true.

The trouble is, you see, that in my opinion we did discuss it at length on Friday.

I told G about my problems with the KVM adaptor (that I couldn't use their monitor that stands on my desk, and which can only be used by their computer under my desk). He stated (in my opinion very clearly) that they were considering purchasing one monitor, to replace the elderly CRT model on the middle desk. That to me clearly means that they were not intending to replace "my" monitor. I said that I would have to arrange to use a different monitor there, because of the KVM, and that if their plans did not include purchasing a second monitor then I would do so. He replied (in my opinion very clearly) that they had no such plans.

Needless to say, their plans changed, and G came within an ace of buying a second monitor on the weekend—without telling me. (Clearly the need to inform runs only in one direction.) He didn't, though; but oh horrors! what if he had done?