Forearms and a sleeve rolled exactly twice
The jacket comes off at some point in the evening. Two folds, then two more, forearms out, and the room gets a little warmer without anyone touching a thermostat. It is such a small piece of tailoring that men do not realise they are doing it on purpose.
Ask a table of women which part of a man they notice first when he goes quiet and the answer is almost always the arms. Not the gym kind. The kind that look like they could carry your suitcase without comment.
A watch with a story and a scuffed strap
Not the shiny kind. This one has a dent on the case from a door he was carrying something through in 2014, and a strap that was replaced once, badly, because he did not want to throw the old one away. He tells the story in two sentences if you ask.
Notice the hands around it. Tidy nails, no rings, a wrist that turns when he checks the time instead of lifting a whole arm. A man who keeps one object for ten years usually keeps promises on the same schedule.
