@justsomeguy073: a pause.
one pause.
in a completely ordinary conversation about a completely ordinary thing.
not a long pause.
a fraction of a second longer than normal.
the kind that wouldn't register unless you were paying the right kind of attention.
i was paying the right kind of attention.
had been for a while without knowing i was doing it.
and something in that pause landed differently to every other pause in every other conversation.
i didn't say anything immediately.
just noted it.
and started paying closer attention to pauses specifically.
and what i found over the following two weeks was that certain topics had a specific pause attached to them.
always the same fraction of a second.
always the same quality.
always before the same category of answer.
the pause was the tell.
small enough that i almost missed it every time.
consistent enough that eventually i couldn't miss it at all. 😑
