Even with a focus it's a really bad idea, Tony was about to say, when he caught that look. He stopped - not really taken aback, but given sufficient pause that he could forego what would have been a pretty flip comment, anyway. There weren't a lot of things that were strictly economized around here, but earnest consideration of anyone wasn't really a mainstay of the Stark household. He glanced away under the weight of it, perhaps a sign that he wasn't feeling as confident about what he was actually saying as he sometimes did.
But whatever Jarvis had seen that made him think he had anything in common with Rogers, he was confident he hadn't noticed it. He decided to interpret it, for now, as a commentary on his hospitality, which had admittedly fallen a little short of the mark a few minutes before Rogers' departure. It wouldn't be the first time he'd been given the side-eye for his manners. And he could agree - in theory - that he and Rogers both shared the blame for that. Maybe not in equal measure, but could he have taken Rogers' behavior a little more smoothly in stride? Sure. Probably. If he'd exerted a slightly more saintly effort to hold onto his patience.
"I'll be sure to brush up on my lunkhead dialect," he said, watching him head back to the kitchen. "Then maybe next time I see him we can kiss and make up. Next year's ball - might be a little too soon, but in the spirit of collegiality, sure. We'll see." He couldn't imagine what he'd have to say to him; he didn't really want to try. Imagining that there might be something in the first place was what had got him here. He wasn't all that interested in taking advice that was likely to take him back to square one.
But when he was alone, he took up the glass of water and swallowed about half of it in one go. He needed something to wash the taste out of his mouth, and his abomination of a cocktail wasn't doing the trick.