Antonio has feakishly accurate powers of observation.  He is able to predict and interpret human ambition, intellect, bias, desire, and motivation.

With me, since he has access to ALL kinds of information, he is downright terrifying in his ability to read me.  It’s a fabulous quality in a dominant partner, that’s for sure.

I don’t match him in this ability.  But I see things he doesn’t pay attention to.  I watch where people rest their fingertips.  I watch how they hold their shoulders when they’re tired.  I observe quietly and completely, but my skills are… Different. 

Because he has instilled in me a love of analogy – Antonio’s knowledge functions like an encyclopedia, and mine like a book of trivia.  He is looking for the bigger picture with a person as a whole, implications and connections, how he can use the information.  His skills are more useful than mine in the world, and more useful to a dominant.

However, my skills let me read Antonio in ways that are useful to me, and to him.  I know when he’s tired.  I know when he’s pissed.  I know when he is irritated, or when he wants to relax.  (Unfortunately, I can’t always tell you WHY, and I tend to freak out over that part, or invent reasons that don’t exist, but still.)  I know when he’s taken a nap and when he hasn’t slept as much as he’d like to.

It is useful to me because he doesn’t always feel the need to share this information with me. But sometimes it amuses him that I can figure certain stuff out.  For example, we were on the phone the other night.  I couldn’t see him, smell him, see his fridge, his table, his hand.  I don’t know what he did when he went on errands.  I have very little information at my fingertips a thousand miles away.

Over the phone, I heard him stifle a burp.  Now, this is not unusual or anything – people burp, including Antonio.  And often when he’s on the phone he won’t go for maximum volume right into the mouthpiece.

But… There was just something about the way it sounded.  My brain registered and before I fully knew WHY I was saying it, I said, “Did you have a beer tonight?” 

(I only put it as a question to be polite.  I KNEW he had, even though he hadn’t had a beer in a month – he doesn’t drink when he’s working and working out a lot.)

He replied, “No, I haven’t.  *pause*  Wait!  Yes, I did have a beer.  I bought a six-pack and decided I’d just drink one now… Wow… Wow.  How did you know that?”

“You burped…  You’d had a beer.”

He laughed for a while and said, “Sometimes I forget how closely you watch me.”

I sometimes forget too.  It’s just second nature.