Compromise

"Uh, sure," you say, surprised at her sudden change of heart. "What if you only played your music during the day, say from like eight to ten. That would leave a good ten hours for me to sleep and you'd still have a majority of the day."

She grimaces. "Uh, no. How about I buy you a really nice pair of noise-cancelling headphones. My friend works in tech, she can probably hook me up with a good price."

"Why don't you just wear headphones?" you ask, feeling perfectly reasonable.

"Nah, not really a headphones type of person. You should just wear them, it'll make us both happy."

You pinch the bridge of your nose in exasperation. "No, it won't make us both happy. Look, I don't really want to argue about this, and you're not offering a lot of options here. Would you rather only listen during the day or wear headphones?"

There's a pause, and she finally says: "Fine, I'll wear headphones. But I'm not happy about it."

You nod, and turn to go. "Thanks, Karina. I really appreciate it."

She shuts the door and you walk back to your apartment in blissful quiet. You're outside your door when a thought drifts through your foggy, sleep-deprived mind: that wasn't a normal conversation. Karina had just started agreeing with you, even though she had been completely antagonistic at first. What the hell?

This piques your curiosity, but you're also incredibly tired.