[ "I'm not upset" isn't the strongest way to start this particular conversation, Peter thinks. "I'm not upset" sounds like the start to a lecture.
That's something a guy would hear after he's, like, broken a vase, or got caught stealing from someone's wallet, or was quietly returning the keys to someone's car after going out for a joy ride.
And worse than that, it sounds like she's about to let him down gently.
Which he's expected, of course. Like, he's been 95% sure he'd be the one to say it first, and probably too soon, and that she'd just freeze up on him and be like, "Uhhh," and just slowly ice him out because it's too much, too soon, and—
—And then she says if, not when. "If" she says it.
His teeth dig into his lower lip so he doesn't give away how much of a death knell that sounds like.
But that's always been a possibility at the back of his head, too – that she might not feel the same way, or that she might never say it aloud. And that's— complicated. That's a whole different conversation that Peter isn't prepared to have just yet.
So instead, he just— nods to signal, "I get it." He doesn't trust himself to actually say anything else. ]
no subject
That's something a guy would hear after he's, like, broken a vase, or got caught stealing from someone's wallet, or was quietly returning the keys to someone's car after going out for a joy ride.
And worse than that, it sounds like she's about to let him down gently.
Which he's expected, of course. Like, he's been 95% sure he'd be the one to say it first, and probably too soon, and that she'd just freeze up on him and be like, "Uhhh," and just slowly ice him out because it's too much, too soon, and—
—And then she says if, not when. "If" she says it.
His teeth dig into his lower lip so he doesn't give away how much of a death knell that sounds like.
But that's always been a possibility at the back of his head, too – that she might not feel the same way, or that she might never say it aloud. And that's— complicated. That's a whole different conversation that Peter isn't prepared to have just yet.
So instead, he just— nods to signal, "I get it." He doesn't trust himself to actually say anything else. ]