Her eyes held invitation. That coffee shop afternoon crackled with chemistry. But “what if she rejects me?” paralyzed me into silence. My quiet registered as indifference.

Cowardice becomes our greatest tragedy. We fear hypothetical rejection’s brief pain while ignoring lifelong regret’s chronic torture. Afraid of hearing “no,” we carry eternal “what if.”

Our risk-averse brain plays evolution’s cruel joke. Survival instincts protecting cave-dwelling ancestors prove counterproductive in modern love. Social rejection isn’t death, but our amygdala treats it as existential threat.

That unspoken confession still echoes in my parallel universe. Alternative timelines where I was brave. There we’re together; here I’m alone with phantoms.

Perhaps most haunting realization: she might have interpreted my silence as answer. Mutual attraction buried under unilateral cowardice.

True tragedy isn’t unrequited love—it’s unexpressed love.