Tell me more

She gave him a patient hearing. She always did that. After all, a person who had things to say, even if in bad faith, had things to say. He had a way of making his pettiness seem grand. Neither of them were sure if this was owing to his ability or because she had politely let it pass all those years ago and it'd assumed a character of its own. But it made the conversation appear elevated and burying their incompetence was a mutual goal anyway. Short term-ism isn't just a corporate phenomenon, he'd say; in the conversation itself, the self referencing will have passed for abstraction.

Reading gives the reader too much space. That must be why he had issues with writing.