I'm sorry, says Linus.Don't be sorry, I say, almost aggressively. You didn't say anything.Which is true. He didn't say anything. He stopped mid-sentence.Except that stopping mid-sentence is the worst thing people can do. It's, like, partially aggressive, because you can't take issue with anything they've said. You have to take issue with what you think they were going to say.Which they then deny.
In the book "Finding Audrey" by Sophie Kinsella, there is a tense interaction between two characters, Linus and the narrator. Linus expresses regret for a pause he made mid-sentence, but the narrator insists that he should not apologize. The narrator's reaction indicates that the pause felt more significant than a simple interruption; it created an uncomfortable situation where she felt compelled to react not to Linus's actual words, but to the silence that followed.
This unspoken tension reflects a deep-seated frustration with ambiguous communication. The narrator’s critique of Linus’s pause highlights how incomplete thoughts can be perceived as dismissive or provoking. It points to the complexities of conversation where silence can speak louder than words, leaving the other party grappling with the unvoiced implications of what might have been said.
