[He waits patiently for her to continue, and when she does he finds her choice of words interesting in several respects. One is the aborted sentence, and another is that this is almost exactly how she described her last attempt at talking to someone to have gone.

But he decides not to mention that for now.]

If it makes you feel any better, that isn't a reaction people typically have when there's genuinely nothing going on. You were probably right in thinking there was something to be discussed.

[Maybe hearing that she's not being ridiculous will help, at least.]