[She decides the smile wasn't enough, and adds a (gentle) kick to his leg.]

Don't look at me like that, I just wanna know where we stand.

[Maybe they can just talk about this and it can be casual, instead of awkward and fraught.]

I mean-- we can't exactly make a public thing of it, 'cause I'm a little worried about how some of my friends from back home would take it.

[hahah they'd kill him.]