When 'yep, totally' means nothing

“You and your partner are getting ready for a small dinner party at your place — you're setting the table, they're finishing up in the kitchen. You've been trying to tell them something for the last ten minutes: a small but real thing about feeling left out of a decision they made about the holidays this year. You get through maybe two sentences before they say 'yep, totally' and ask you where you put the good serving spoon. The guests arrive in twenty minutes.”