Gilbert welcomes the silence, keep his attention on other things while waiting for the water to return to a boil. In the meantime, Gilbert works to fold the cheese cloth a few times to strengthen the filtering effect while still keeping it long enough that he can hold it steady.

He returns to water boiling away and takes it off the stove, setting it down and properly setting up the cheesecloth once more over the cup. "Quickly, do you want strong coffee?" It's not an attempt to make conversation. There's only a small time window, and he's putting the coffee grains on the cloth as he asks.