Ah yes we have the if only you try hard enough you can pretend the nasty old autism isn't there.
That's called masking, it's something that females are especially good at. It's also something that can lead to burnout, mental health issues, self harming and suicide.
I can mask, I mask at work, I am not going to mask in my downtime. I masked for 45 years, I pretended I was the same as everyone else, I pushed down the sick feeling walking in a room full of strangers, in fact no I just refused to go in that room. I conciously stopprd myself from rocking and stimming, I also had massive meltdowns because I couldn't self regulate and nearly ate myself to death.
Btw autism is not only a spectrum but every autistic person is different, and has different difficulties. Some people with autism are more social than others. But it is literally part of the diagnosis that we have social and communication difficulties.
Oh and just so you know "therapy" such as ABA, which tries to change autistic behaviour to fit in with societal norms, is widely disliked by much of the autistic community. (There are still some that think the approach is great, but more that dont).
We don't want to be cured or changed to fit in to societies expectations, we want to be accepted for who we are and accommodated where possible.
Oh yep I'm on one this evening, but this is obviously something that genuinely affects me.
But if anything, as an autistic person I would have got the message quite quickly that John wasn't interested in small talk. I know that if someone doesn't want to talk to me they don't have to and how it feels to be sat there while someone tries to get into a jolly chat with me before I know them.