When you say, " ... "

What you really mean is that there is something that just doesn't seem quite right about this guy, like what you were doing is what everyone does, which is to get all the ink and paper information straight, to make sure there is no glaring reason to dismiss the very idea, which you don't expect to find given that the recommendation came from someone you both respect and admire, someone you love and to whom it caresses your self respect to make honor-bound promises, bound as it is to the notion of appearing favorable in her eyes, but to see if you have a good feeling about him, and to feel out a rapport. Were you to analyze what that feeling would be comprised of you might say that for starters Is this a person that 1., others will draw a favorable impression from?, and 2., Would others look more favorably on me by contextual association? But a rapport eludes you because he is taciturn and vaguely arrogant, and his attempts at friendliness feel as if they are projected through a thick shell of self loathing, though such specific characterization of a person is not among your particular arsenal of deductive faculties, and you allow yourself to become distracted following a perfunctory goodbye, assuring yourself that you will examine the scenario further when you have some time to dissect the conversation, say, or at least contemplate that one specific moment when he somehow tipped you off balance and you felt rather vulnerable, which surprised you; but the right time takes its time coming and before long the initial unanalyzed impression becomes the definitive one, and when it comes time to make a real decision you find that you have already come to the conclusion that it just wouldn't be a good fit, again without specifically articulating to yourself why but confident enough with your instincts and in the end the comfort afforded to you by at least this much power over the events that coalesce above the roiling chaos of world to formulate your life that you need not complicate it further with the elements of sincerity that would lead to any reason other than " ... " .