The song opens with the first speaker narrating how a woman is serving him tea. Then it shifts to the perspective of the woman with the tea tray. The first speaker believes that what the woman "really needs to say" is how she loved him/her "a long time ago" but just "couldn't let go" enough to truly realize it back then and now she is full of regrets at what could have been. Moreover, she still remains silent and unable to confess her true feelings. Then it shifts back to the first speaker who feels the need to act, to "take her". But he/she is also paralyzed by the fear to speak up and act out their feelings. Due to their fears, the pair remain frozen in a state of unrequited yearning where they perform the routine activities of any other day instead of breaking with the monotony, going beyond their anti-climactic interactions, and letting these pregnant moments give rise to the beginning of a new day together. There is also the implication that this entire fantasy may only exist in the first speaker's imagination. Maybe the woman with the tea tray actually has nothing of the sort to say to him/her. The thing is, he/she will never know because they're too scared to take the risk of sharing how they feel.
The song opens with the first speaker narrating how a woman is serving him tea. Then it shifts to the perspective of the woman with the tea tray. The first speaker believes that what the woman "really needs to say" is how she loved him/her "a long time ago" but just "couldn't let go" enough to truly realize it back then and now she is full of regrets at what could have been. Moreover, she still remains silent and unable to confess her true feelings. Then it shifts back to the first speaker who feels the need to act, to "take her". But he/she is also paralyzed by the fear to speak up and act out their feelings. Due to their fears, the pair remain frozen in a state of unrequited yearning where they perform the routine activities of any other day instead of breaking with the monotony, going beyond their anti-climactic interactions, and letting these pregnant moments give rise to the beginning of a new day together. There is also the implication that this entire fantasy may only exist in the first speaker's imagination. Maybe the woman with the tea tray actually has nothing of the sort to say to him/her. The thing is, he/she will never know because they're too scared to take the risk of sharing how they feel.