Hello everybody, this is my first post. I've read a few of the "how to post articles" and it seemed pretty basic, but if I've committed some sort of major faux pas please feel free to do what you have to do.
Anyway, I think focusing the analysis on this strip on Dora's reaction is counter productive. She's a nuanced enough character, and her history is fleshed out enough, that this is a pretty understandable reaction. The key is to remember two things: timing and her own insecurities. Let's assume that the flirtation in question occurred in the early afternoon, or roughly 4 hours before Marten goes to Coffee of Doom. Given Dora's reaction in yesterday's comic and her overall makeup, the news that another girl was treading on her turf is basically the most important issue of the day. Sven could walk in and announce he'd sold a song for $50k and Dora would still fixate on Marten being hit upon. Give that a few hours to brew, and she forgets that the same incident might not be the most important aspect of Marten's day. So, when she asks him what happened, and he says nothing, she immediately assumes he's lying to cover it up. Right or wrong, at that moment Dora is understandably upset and hurt. Who wouldn't be if they thought their SO was lying to them about stuff like that?
What's more interesting to me is Marten's reaction. Why didn't he tell her immediately about the incident? There are many possibilities:
1) He had simply forgotten. While it was neat when it happened, maybe him and Tai spent an hour playing strip poker after wards and he forgot all about some Coed asking him out. Since he did nothing wrong, and didn't feel guilty about it, Dora's questioning wouldn't bring it up, it would in fact bury it deeper while he tried to think of anything actually interesting that happened. In this case, Marten is totally innocent, and we can assume he would have mentioned it at some point when he remembered.
2) He figured there is no way Dora would know about the incident, and so doesn't tell her because he knows how insecure she is, and it'll just upset her for no good reason. In this case he's being patronizing, but there's so little a chance of Dora finding out that it's understandable. The downside is that this could lead to a major discussion about the relationship: namely Dora's insecurities making Marten like her less, and not more, thus pushing him more directly to look at other women.
3) Marten could honestly feel guilty about it, and maybe even entertained thoughts of saying yes to the girl. If Marten is having serious second thoughts about his relationship with Dora, this sort of event could be enough to collapse the whole thing. This could also just be classic Marten sputtering/being flustered.
4) I think the most interesting possibility is that the event wasn't noteworthy because it happens all the time! Given the passage of time, his good looks, the confidence Faye has beaten into him and Dora has brought out, and working at an all girls school; it's not out of the question that Marten get's these questions a few times a week. His comment a few days back about being more popular when in a relationship seems to lend some credence to this theory. While this would perhaps bother Dora at first, I think in the long term she'd grow to understand that she's got a high value guy whose very loyal to her.
I have enough confidence that this isn't the beginning of sit-com style wacky misunderstandings being the basis of plot lines. I think if anything it's going to lead to some fairly serious discussion about their relationship. Dora has never gotten over being the silver medal, which is silly because most guys are really happy to get a participation ribbon. While Marten probably should have been more forthcoming about this, frankly the event was more important and noteworthy to Dora (who probably thought about it all day) than it was to Marten. I'm guessing Dora will either get over this quickly, or the two will come out stronger from it all.
