Once Isaac had finished he was practically holding his breath, because this could have gone one of two very different ways. Either Lydia could have understood where he was coming from and maybe even see some of the points he was making (he didn’t expect her to see all of them, but that didn’t mean he shouldn’t at least try), or she would tell him that he was objectifying her and it wasn’t all about how she looked. And, of course, Isaac knew that, but he was banking on the fact that, to Lydia, a lot of it was about how she looked, and that made it important. He didn’t want to come off as creepy, but he had a feeling that Lydia needed to hear it. He moved back a little when she shifted just enough to look up at him, and he straightened his back so he could look down at her, his hand moving to brush her hair behind her ear, and he gave her a hesitant smile, still not positive that he wasn’t in trouble.
“That’s what I really see,” he promised her. A moment of silence stretched between them. “It’s hard to keep my eyes off of you,” he finally admitted, looking almost ashamed. “You look amazing, Lydia. And that’s not even everything, that’s just everything that I can start with. That’s what I see. And I wish that you saw it too, I know that you can’t just turn it on and off like that but just know that, you know. You’re still gorgeous when everybody else looks at you. You might not feel it, and that’s understandable, but from what everybody else is seeing versus what you’re feeling… it doesn’t match up.” He felt heat rise to his face again as he moved his hand to the back of his neck in an awkward rub. “I mean jesus, I hit my head just walking into your place because I saw you sitting on the bed like that with your legs cross and I kind of just… forgot about doorways…”
When he finished, Lydia gave a humorless little huff in place of a laugh that she didn’t quite feel, but that felt appropriate in its place. The smile that dragged up the corners of her mouth didn’t reach her eyes, but there was a little hint, at least, of amusement there at his comment about the doorway. She chose the partner that she was sure was a safe bet...and had handed the actual best partner to Malia on a silver platter. God, she was an idiot.
“Stiles doesn’t see it,” she finally said after a long pause, shrugging her shoulders. She let out another one of those soft huffs that should’ve been a laugh except that her feelings were too hurt to round it out. “I thought he’d be a sure bet, but…” her voice trailed off and she shrugged again before taking a deep breath and sighing out, “I was wrong.” She lifted a hand to run through her hair, pushing it out of her face and back over her shoulders as they slumped with defeat. It wasn’t so much that she wanted Stiles to see it as she wanted her partner in this endeavor to feel it. Whether that was Stiles or someone else didn’t really matter. She just...thought Stiles was a safe bet and she’d put her money on the wrong horse.
When Lydia told him that Stiles hadn’t seen it Isaac looked at her with confusion for a moment before he finally realized what she meant. Well, what she must have meant, because Isaac knew for a fact that there was no way Stiles didn’t see how amazing Lydia looked. It sounded, though, as if he hadn’t said it aloud, and that caught Isaac by surprised, because it was the first time he was hearing of any issues there between her and the person that she picked to have her baby with. People didn’t really understand why she picked Stiles, or at least Scott had said it was strange for her to do so when she was apparently ‘out to get him’ by telling Malia that the concept of Alpha didn’t matter here. Isaac, however, never questioned her decision, because it made sense; he was smart. And he liked her, everybody knew that Stiles had liked Lydia, so she probably assumed that he would be more than happy to dote on her and show her the affection she knew she would have needed.