John didn't know what this was. But he could see an attempt at sabotage when one came up and this was most definitely what was going on here.
Funny, since he was normally the one to fuck things up beyond repair in relationships -- sometimes on accident and sometimes on purpose. They were both adults here, but he wasn't exactly more emotionally equipped to be carrying the weight for two of them. And if he was, he'd probably know better than to do so, wouldn't he?
In this instance, John didn't know what better off for either of them was. But Carol was obviously confused and edging toward that bitter sort of feeling one got when pressured one way or the other. And John didn't really want to be the recipient of that or the reason it was happening. It didn't matter if she was lying or not -- she was turning it into something that was less Catch 22 and more Fuck You.
"We tried," he echoed, and that bloody fucking sucked to do, it really did. He took a drag from his cigarette and then pulled up his emotional defenses, offering a crooked cocksure sort of smile. "Best we have our space then, innit."
Apparently, what happened in Vegas did not stay in Vegas.