[Probably.]

Okay.

[And that's as far as she wants to go with that, since she'd been mostly joking to begin with. She just hadn't expected him to take it seriously, and now she's kicking herself because what does it say that she didn't anticipate that?

Regardless, a subject change is probably in order.]

Anyway, I think it makes more sense to look at it as a solidified bubble than a tether that's been stretched out the other way.