"about your cousin"

I'll be en route to meet up with my friend Kyle and I'll be feeling super anxious about some aspect of seeing him. Maybe we're going to be getting drinks, and I'm worried he's going to ask if I want to order food and I'll have to say "no" because I have dinner plans after... and there will be this uncomfortable moment when he contemplates his "slotted in before dinner" status. Or maybe I'll be panicking that he's going to bring up the e-mail he sent me a few weeks ago that I ignored in which he asked if I would help his cousin get a job interview.

Then, without fail - and I wish I understood precisely what it is about my character that causes me to act in this way - I'll get to the bar and find Kyle and sit down and literally the first thing I'll say is: "So, it's cool that we're just getting drinks and not food... ?" And he'll look at me kind of quizzically and say, "Yeah, why, are you hungry?" and just like that, I've made it into a weird thing! Or there will be a pause in the conversation, and I'll start rambling, "Hey, by the way, sorry about that e-mail... about your cousin... I was gonna respond... but just... so busy... you know." He was probably never going to bring it up himself!

I guess this behavior is a sort of corollary of the "when you concentrate on not thinking about something, it becomes all you can think about" phenomenon, except instead of remaining an in-your-own-head annoyance, this kind results in your groan-sighing when you get a text the next morning that says: "drinks was really fun! and thanks so much for agreeing to help out my cousin, i'm just gonna give him your e-mail and he'll be in touch!!!"