“Okay, fine,” Ben sighed, casting a glance at the other pictures on the desk and then looking back at Rory. “But you’re not going to believe me,” he started, sounding calmer than he actually was. “I just...” he paused for a second, looking at his hands and breathing a deep breath. How did he explain this? “I really just... do. I don’t know how I do, but sometimes, it’s like when I’m told a lie, a ping goes off in my head and it tells me that I’m being lied to, Rory. I know you’re lying to me. Just like I knew you were telling the truth when you told me about your... particular talent,” he explained. “So, I know that this is a lie. But I genuinely don’t know how.”
Yes, he knew exactly how crazy he sounded. Until then, until that moment, he’d been willing to believe that it was just a peculiar propensity for knowing when someone wasn’t being honest with him. But going from knowing a truth to just knowing a lie over the course of one conversation was getting to him. “I just do,” he repeated what he’d said earlier. “I wasn’t being evasive.”