Paul: I used to take [Martha] out to the country to long walks, take her out to Regent's Park, where she would see a duck on the lake and forget that you couldn't walk on water, so she'd run into it, and it would be like a cartoon. It was very nice. And I remember John being... very sort of... sympathetic... to me. I think he warmed to me... seeing me with... a pet. John was a cat... guy. He loved his cats.
Q: When you say he warmed to you...
Paul: Yeah... I remember... you know... him... I just remember sort of... when he came around and I'd be playing with Martha, I could tell... that he... liked it.
A few things stand out to me here. The first is Paul's hesitation. He isn't offering a simple, polished anecdote; his pauses suggest he is searching for the right words. His phrasing that John "warmed to me" or became "sympathetic" has always sounded a bit off to my ears. Notice, too, how he slightly deviates from the topic just to point out that John liked cats, which isn't really relevant to the point he's making. Also, when interviewer says, "When you say he warmed to you...?", this gave Paul the chance to reply, "Yes, before that he was rather guarded." But he doesn't. Instead, he downgrades his explanation to something much milder: "I could tell that he liked it." Those are two very different statements. "Warmed to me" implies a shift from coldness to affection, whereas "he liked seeing me with Martha" is a much narrower, simpler observation. This is why I’m skeptical of using this story as proof that they had previously been emotionally distant, or that John seeing Paul play with Martha was what broke the ice. I think what happened is simpler: this memory stuck with Paul because John was looking at him with total tenderness while he played with Martha, and Paul loved being on the receiving end of that look. Of course, Paul isn't going to outright admit, "I just loved the adoring way he looked at me." So when he tries to share a memory he clearly treasures, he stumbles over how to frame it into a neat, conventional story. Notice how he deflects the interviewer's question instead of clarifying what he meant by John becoming "warm and sympathetic"—he simply pivots back to saying he could tell John liked seeing him with Martha. The core of this memory for Paul is simply how John was looking at him, not much more. If anything, the anecdote reveals how deeply John felt about Paul: the mere sight of Paul being carefree, happy, and playful tugged at John's heart so intensely that it was written all over his face. The true center of John's attention wasn't Martha—it was Paul. Paul knows that, and I feel that this why he gets so hesitant/self-conscious whenever he tries to explain the story publicly.
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