The untouched cup signals caution. Beside a crowded table, it can mark not indifference but self-protection: when each dropped tone, withheld glance, and small humiliation registers sharply, contact becomes costly before it becomes comforting. Warmth has a toll. What looks cold is often triage, a small barricade raised before feeling can become exposure.Empathy can exhaust. In people prone to emot...More