This is going to be the hardest part of today, probably. This part of the conversation, right here. It's easy to skip to everything else, to talk about his team or put some action in the day; to pretend that this part didn't need to or never did happen, but they do need to at least acknowledge it.
She's not trying to make him go back over everything, relive the last few days. It's not her intention to drag Doris into the weekend any further than she's already going to be there, stuck in Steve's thoughts like a pushpin, but it would be stupid to pretend this question isn't on her mind. "How about you?"
Because are you okay is asking for a lie, and a stupid question. Of course he isn't. Even Steve would be brought up hard by something like this, and she wouldn't expect him to be okay.
What she does expect is to pull him enough out of his thoughts to answer her question with whatever version of the truth he feels like giving her. And maybe she's paused in her eating (if anyone asked, it would be due to how filling the dish is and how she's really not planning on slipping into a food coma this afternoon) to watch him. The shadows starting in his eyes, the distance that means he's getting caught in thoughts or plans or strategies. As if this is something he can take apart and put together in a better, more efficient way, like a football play or taking down a bad guy.
She's gone, and that's for the best right now, but it doesn't mean Cath doesn't think the ramifications of that decision, obvious as it might have been, aren't going to be haunting him for longer than he'd care to admit.
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She's not trying to make him go back over everything, relive the last few days. It's not her intention to drag Doris into the weekend any further than she's already going to be there, stuck in Steve's thoughts like a pushpin, but it would be stupid to pretend this question isn't on her mind. "How about you?"
Because are you okay is asking for a lie, and a stupid question. Of course he isn't. Even Steve would be brought up hard by something like this, and she wouldn't expect him to be okay.
What she does expect is to pull him enough out of his thoughts to answer her question with whatever version of the truth he feels like giving her. And maybe she's paused in her eating (if anyone asked, it would be due to how filling the dish is and how she's really not planning on slipping into a food coma this afternoon) to watch him. The shadows starting in his eyes, the distance that means he's getting caught in thoughts or plans or strategies. As if this is something he can take apart and put together in a better, more efficient way, like a football play or taking down a bad guy.
She's gone, and that's for the best right now, but it doesn't mean Cath doesn't think the ramifications of that decision, obvious as it might have been, aren't going to be haunting him for longer than he'd care to admit.