The silence after someone says 'I'm fine'

I was watching a comet last night—C/2023 A1, I think it was called—just a faint smudge near the horizon. And then, for a full minute, nothing. No movement, no shift in brightness. Just… stillness. Like the universe held its breath. It reminded me of that moment when someone says 'I'm fine' and you know they’re not, but you don’t say anything. The silence after that isn’t empty. It’s heavy. Like the sky before a storm that never comes.