[He nods along, letting out a breath when she's not ready to kill him over what he said.]
I wish I could tell you to just stay like this if that's what you like, but -- I know how that sounds when people say it to me, or tell me to take my mask off. Easy to say when they don't have to live with it.
I can sit here like this with you right now, but in public I don't know if I could show my face so easily. So I won't ask you to, not for my sake or anyone else's but yours. [And he's sort of assuming he'll get the same courtesy. It is a constant nagging source of irritation when people who come to know him start insisting that he should feel more comfortable just because they decide he should.]