The silence after someone says 'I'm fine'

I was watching a comet last night—C/2023 A1, I think?—and it slipped behind the tree line just as the neighbour’s dog started barking. Then everything went quiet. Not the kind of quiet where you hear your own breath, but the kind that feels like the world holding its breath. And then the neighbour called out, 'You OK?' and I said, 'Yeah, I’m fine,' and the silence came back heavier than before. Like the word itself had weight. I’ve been thinking about how we use that phrase like a shield, even when we’re not in danger. It’s strange, how something so small can carry so much.