He mirrors your gestures

You sip; he sips. You lean on your elbow; his elbow finds the table. You laugh and tilt your head; a few seconds later, his head tilts the same direction. Mirroring is the body's quiet way of saying 'we are on the same wavelength,' and it happens automatically when two people are in genuine rapport. It's one of the earliest social signals studied by researchers, and it's been found to be both a sign of connection and a driver of it — people who are mirrored feel more positively about the person doing it, even without knowing why. The key is the timing. True mirroring has a slight delay — it's not simultaneous, which would be eerie, but follows the other person's gesture by a few seconds, like an unconscious echo. When you notice that his body keeps landing in positions that remind you of your own, you're watching connection express itself below the level of language. Rapport is the soil attraction grows in. Mirroring is how you know the soil is there.