You glanced. He never came over. For a long time that felt like a verdict on you. It was not.
Men and women do not see the same amount of the same room. His clear vision is a small circle in the middle — about fifteen degrees — like looking through a cardboard tube. Yours is a wide, fast field. A one-second look is enough for you to take him in. It is not enough for him to take you in.
His brain then guesses what your look meant by running it through his own way of seeing. If he had looked that briefly, he would not have seen you. So he assumes you did not see him. Approach never starts.
A slightly longer, warm, direct gaze is not a performance. It is a translation. It is the minimum his visual-motor system needs to keep the bridge open.
This sample is written to be read aloud — by you, or by any voice app you already have — while the rest of the day happens around you.