About once a week, maybe a little less, I go with co-workers to a Mexican restaurant not far from our office.

And roughly 90% of the time, I order the same thing: a steak fajita quesadilla, with a side of guacamole and sour cream.

When I go with the guys who work in software security, we usually also split a queso dip. Not so much when I go with the other women in my department.

Every single time I’ve gone in the last month, within a minute of my finishing the actual quesadilla part of my lunch, someone has appeared while I had a chip and guac in my mouth and grabbed my still-full-of-guac-and-sour-cream plate. It’s already become a joke with my friends.

Today it happened so fast that I almost couldn’t get the plate back! Which also almost led to both of us spewing half-chewed food on the table, because we were laughing so hard.

But seriously! How do I get them to leave my food until I’m done?

I don’t know what I’m doing that signals the waitstaff to take away the plate. Should I leave 1 bite of quesadilla? They get all mushy if you don’t eat them while they’re hot. Should I try to train myself to sit at the table with my left arm protectively around the plate?