I'll say to you exactly what I said to her, because it's the truth: "How many people on this planet have never been thought of as cute, and would happily die for anyone at all to think of them that way, even once?". That's probably when she started tuning me out.
That would be an excellent suggestion for most couples, (we aren't a couple any more)but she's very smart, and would say something like, "Oh, shut up" and I'd laugh, and we'd keep eating Burger King in the parking lot.
Huh, "shut up" is my favourite answer, too...
Well, yes and no, I don't necessarily think it's fair because
she's the one being called cute, it's up to her. If someone doesn't want to be called a certain way, they probably have valid reasons for it (I know I do), and yes, other people might feel a different way about it and it might seem ungrateful to them, but the fact remains that it doesn't feel that way for her/me.
I won't accept just anyone calling me whatever
they want to call me just because they think it's universally nice to hear (take the example of "sexy" instead of "cute". Some people are not offended, others might very much, for whatever reasons.).
I would happily call 'cute' a person who's never heard it and to whom it matters (although I personally prefer using other words to convey the same message). It's not that hard to stop calling someone something they don't like.
It's really not a big deal, and I certainly didn't intend it to be and I don't want to debate this, it's just my opinion and you can do with it what you wish. To me, we're good.