She remembers the throwaway detail

Two weeks ago, in a passing conversation, you mentioned a band you hadn't thought about in years, or a project at work that felt half-finished, or a city you'd been meaning to visit. You'd forgotten you'd said it. Tonight, she mentions it casually — 'whatever happened with that thing you were working on?' Memory is a function of attention, and attention follows interest. We remember what we find important. If she's holding onto the details you thought were too small to matter, you matter more than she's letting on. This kind of recall is particularly meaningful because it can't be faked retroactively. You either stored the information at the time or you didn't, and the only reason to store it is because something in you found it worth keeping. When a woman is keeping quiet receipts on the details of your life — the small things, the throwaway mentions — she has been paying closer attention than the surface of the conversation suggested. That attention is a gift she hasn't announced yet.