Nobody was trying to impress anybody. The four of them had known each other too long for that. Saturday afternoon, kitchen, beer, one of them chopping onions while the other three argued about whether the song on the speakers was overrated. The dog slept under the table. Somebody's kid came in, asked a question, got an answer, left again. No one felt the need to fill the pauses. When the conversation wandered it wandered gently, and when it came back to something interesting everybody caught up without anybody having to recap.
