He was right, was the thing. He wished he had someone to talk to about this, and he knew talking about it would help, but he didn't want to talk about it with Julian Fisk. Maybe Julian didn't hate him, but if he knew what Alfred was dealing with he might change his mind about that. And it wasn't as though he could give him advice, or anything, even if he didn't leap to any judgemental conclusions — if Alfred had decided an hour ago that Pablo didn't have enough context to answer his questions, Julian was hardly going to be a better choice. And he couldn't give him any of the context, not without saying too much. How could he make anyone (much less Zelda's brother) understand how much he cared about Jo without making it sound like he was just gearing up to be unfaithful to Zelda?

(Maybe he was just gearing up to be unfaithful to Zelda, and he'd been too daft to realize it until yesterday).

"Do you think it's possible for men and women to be friends?" he heard himself asking, and holy shit, that was far too much to say out loud to Zelda's goddamn brother. He might have well just come right out and say yeah, all those assumptions your father made about sailors were spot on, and I'm the manifestation of all the worst things that could happen to your sister, I'm literally incapable of treating her the way she deserves, (and okay, maybe it wasn't exactly saying all of that, but it was certainly not implying anything good, when combined with his earlier I've-said-too-much comments).

"Don't answer that," he said quickly, pressing the palm of one hand to his forehead and pressing his eyes closed as though his own stupidity had just given him a headache. "Don't — forget I said that. Just smile and nod and don't say anything. Please."