What Your Buyers
Actually Want

The plates were still warm when Josh started stacking them. He does that. Doesn't ask. Just stands up when the conversation pauses and starts clearing, like the table is a job site and someone left the tools out.

We'd had Josh and his family over for dinner maybe a dozen times in the three years since they moved in three houses down. The routine had settled into itself. We talk in the front room while the kids cycle between the backyard and the game room, getting louder as the evening goes on. By the time the food is gone, the kitchen belongs to whoever didn't escape fast enough.

Tonight it was me and Josh.

Josh set the stack of plates by the sink and ran water over them. He's built like someone who played football in high school and never fully stopped carrying himself that way. Wide through the shoulders, careful with his hands. He moves through other people's kitchens the way he moves through one of his security clients' buildings. Cataloging. Noticing where things go.

I started wiping down the counter. "How's work?"

He turned off the faucet and dried his hands on the towel hanging from the oven handle. Took his time with the answer.

"Paying the bills."

"That good."

"That good." He leaned against the counter. Crossed his arms. The stance of a man deciding how honest to be. "I have this marketing agency. Paying $4000 a month, eighteen months running. They send me reports with positive numbers on them."

He paused.

"Thing is, I can't definitely connect any of those graphs to a signed contract."

"Have you told them that?"

"What would I say? The graphs look great, but nobody's calling?" He shook his head. "They'd tell me it's brand awareness. Give it more time. Stay the course."