Hostile handshakes

At work, I started a small project on a new client not so long ago. The week before last I went out to meet the client for the first time, and we had a short meeting discussing the project.

There are two main client contacts, and they both took us to the reception of their office to show us out. When I shook the hand of the junior one, he seemed to frown in the most thunderous way he could whilst giving me a penetrating stare. This struck fear in my heart - I immediately wondered if I had made some sort of gaffe in the hand-shaking method. Or perhaps my flies had worked themselves open? (see Abstracts passim)

Anyway, I tried to forget about it and left as normal. Last week we had a second meeting, and again when it came to departure outside my office, the guy did exactly the same thing! It was most disconcerting.

So I began wondering why he would do this. Is it to try to impose an intimidating persona upon the people he meets in the business arena? Or some facial tick associated with the action of shaking hands? I suppose I genuinely could have done something offensive on two separate occasions, however no-one else present seemed to notice! If I get the chance to shake his hand again I will probably try to mirror his expression and observe the results.