House-sitting job shows problem

Dear Amy: My partner and I are currently house and dog sitting for my parents.

We asked our friend to watch our own house while we are gone.

We just moved into this house recently. We managed to clean the house up and make it presentable, except for the kitchen. We ran out of time and left clean dishes in the dishwasher and some dirty dishes in the sink.

Our trash can was also full, so there were two bags of non-food trash by the back door.

Our friend is absolutely livid. She went off on my partner via text. I followed up with her a couple of days later with an apology and an offer to pay her for her time.

It was clear by her response that she was still super-angry.

Personally, I think that being this angry about some dirty dishes after a week might be overreacting.

I don’t know what this face-to-face conversation is going to look like.

How do I ask her to keep her temper down? — Dirty House Owner

Dear Owner: I’m not sure why you are waiting with bated breath for this face-to-face showdown, rather than continuing to communicate in order to try to repair things now.

I take it that your friend has unloaded via text, and you have responded in kind, but an actual phone (or Skype) call is less passive, and you and your partner would be able to both talk and listen.

Tell her, “We appreciate what you are doing and we feel terrible about the condition of the house. How are things going now? Do you have any questions?”

If you have already offered to pay her, follow through. A gift box of goodies sent to her attention and delivered to the house might go the rest of the way to respond to her disappointment.