Page 47 of Experiments in Love

Yep, he was going to blue screen if I wasn’t careful.

At work I’d call IT and let them fix the problem, but there was no IT for people.

Hmm.

“Do you have a therapist?” They were IT for people, right? “I think you need someone to talk to.”

Not me. But someone.

And the fish face was back.

It took him a bit longer to make his brain work that time, but eventually he sighed and closed his eyes. For some reason that seemed to help. “Your way of functioning during a movie is to talk. You’re making me very uncomfortable with your silence.”

There was no pleasing him.

“I make you very uncomfortable with my talking.” Repeating the obvious was all I could do. “Why aren’t you happy?”

That made him pause.

“I don’t know.” He finally sounded like he understood he was being ridiculous. “I’m sorry I snapped at you. The change in your behavior makes me uncomfortable.”

So?

“You do a lot of things that make me uncomfortable. Aren’t we supposed to ignore those things?” I might’ve been a dick but I wasn’t really trying to be a dick. “I’m not sure what to say to you.”

Offering more water wasn’t going to help.

“I…we’re going to come back to what I’m doing later, but for now can you explain why you’re being so quiet?” Somethingmade his eyes pop open and he looked even more stressed. “Are you mad at me? Did something happen on your date?”

Why were those the only two options?

“No and that’s too vague. My dates have been fine, though. Thank you.” The way he silently repeated the worddatessaid I needed to give him more information. “We had dinner together on Monday night.”

Francis said I couldn’t tell him about our sex life, so I just left the story at dinner.

Since I wasn’t the one who was trying to be rude.

“But no problems, though.” Anson was wonderful.

He was patient.

He liked talking to me.

He liked taking care of me.

He understood helping me with penis experiments was part of the wholetaking care of mething.

Yep, no problems there.

My problems were all right in front of me.

“Would you like to ask me a different question or would you like to explain what’s going on?” I was not going to feel bad for his mental breakdown, but I would be helpful if he could articulate the problem. “Because right now I’m not sure why you’re doing this.”

Francis nodded, closing his eyes again and taking a deep breath. Letting it out slowly seemed to be giving him time to process because he managed to talk without sounding insane.“Can you explain why you’re not talking? Aside from the fact that you’re trying to make me happy by being quieter.”

Okay.

“I watched it on Sunday night with Anson. I got all my talking out there and I was just enjoying watching it this time for little details and to find things to tell him about. Did you realize that someone in wardrobe really screwed up because his shoes have gone from black to brown and back to black again?” His clothes weren’t supposed to change.