You’re reading everyone’s tone and forgetting nobody can read yours.

You spend a great deal of effort decoding other people and almost none wondering how you come across. Everybody else is in the same position, working from your short replies and your neutral face with no access to the commentary running in your head. Warmth you feel does not travel on its own. It has to be said or shown before it exists for anyone else.

Make one thing explicit this week that you assumed was obvious: that you are glad they came, or that you are not annoyed. A single sentence does it.