And she waits. Ruth's lips don't move, and her hands don't move, so Betty pulls back gingerly and just looks down at her for a while, expression peaceful, neutral, reflecting nothing back. She looks at the tension in Ruth is carrying in her frozen shoulders, and the slight tremble of her lower lip. At her wide eyes and dark pupils, the new paleness high in her cheeks where someone else might have blushed. And after she's looked, she tilts her head, still unsmiling, and withdraws the hand she had cupping Ruth's jaw. Brings it awkwardly back to her side. Doesn't pull further away but doesn't touch her at all.

Very gently, "Did I misread this?" She doesn't think so. She's always had a talent for reading attraction in people, in reading intent in general in other people. But Ruth... there's a lot that's very private in Ruth. Even if she's right, she might not be right. "I know you're not- Do you want some time to think about it?"

About kissing, dating, the thing that's been building between them. They'd had weeks and weeks of thinking; maybe it was only her. And especially now, Ruth looks so young.