Someone pauses before answering.
You notice.
They look away for a moment.
You notice that too.
The conversation keeps moving, but part of your attention doesn’t. It stays with the pause. The look. The slight change in their voice.
You wonder if they’re annoyed.
Maybe they’re tired.
Maybe you said something.
You don’t decide to think about it. By the time you realize you’re doing it, you’ve already been following the thread for a while.
A few minutes later, everyone is talking normally again.
Nothing happened.
You still leave feeling like something almost did.