Standing Dog

You want things, and you want them from a specific person. That is rarer than it sounds. Most people want in general; you want from someone, and it makes you attentive in a way that is genuinely good to be on the receiving end of. You notice that they are off before they have said so, and you are already halfway to doing something about it.

But you wait to be offered rather than asking, and you have decided that this counts as being polite. It does not. It is a test the other person does not know they are sitting. When they fail it, and they will, because they cannot see the question, you are hurt by somebody who did nothing wrong. Then you stay a little nearer, a little more available, hoping the wanting can be read off you. Occasionally it can. Most of the time it just reads as hovering, and hovering makes people move away.

Say the actual sentence. I would like you to do this. It takes four seconds and it dismantles the entire apparatus. You will get a no sometimes, and a no you asked for is far cheaper than the yes you spent three weeks waiting for.