Tunnel(Vision) Of Love

There is a sort of thing one can say which they suddenly want to take back. I am not talking about the three words "I love you." There are, believe it or not, nine worse words . . . well, eight and the ninth attached with a hyphen.

Forget, "I love you."
Try, "Do you think we could ever be boyfriend-girfriend?"

Let me explain.

Last year I was sitting with a friend in my car, driving home from a movie. We'd been friends for some time. We'd been hitting it off well. I got on her nerves, she got on mine, we had our inside jokes, our catch phrases, one of us burped and the other said "Excuse me", that sort of thing. We were close friends of the opposite sex.

So, I decided to open my mouth and say something which, looking back at it from a year later or from a month later, I saw was completely stupid on my part.

Yes, those nasty nine/eight words above.

Now, my question was valid. Her response was, to say the least, unorthodox.

"Eeeew! No, geez, you're like my brother!"

Well. Okay, then.

Let me just ask you, has this happened to you? Don't answer, of course it has. There has been that horrible moment when you've opened your mouth and said something stupid like "I like you," and the other person says, "Sure, I like you too. You mean, you like my hair, right?" Or they've laughed as though you've delivered the snappiest one-liner the world has ever seen, or you've suddenly sprouted a red nose and a fuzzy orange wig.

This may or may not be a reference to Bonzo the clown, but this is besides the point.

You wish you'd never said it. You wish you'd never spoken. And you see hundreds upon hundreds of reasons you should never have spoken in the first place.
1 - Wrong moment
2 - Too soon
3 - Gets in the way of a good friendship
4 - "When Harry Met Sally"
And so on and so forth.

You have done this. You have, or you will.
Or you have done it to someone.
You just haven't noticed it yet.