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Serino indicates a theory including two face to face confrontations, minutes apart. One at Zimmerman's car (I wonder if that's the one with no words, where Martin gets close, stares, puts his hands in his waistband, then turns and runs),

It's more than a theory, I'd say. This is on the recording of Zimmerman's call to police, and there's no reason to think Zimmerman was fabricating this account - although I'm not sure I'd call it a "confrontation": "Something’s wrong with him. Ayup, he's coming to check me out. He's got something in his hands, I don't know what his deal is."

the other at the location where the fight started.

Well, we know this happened. We just don't know how it happened. But there is no known evidence to contradict Zimmerman's claims. Has the Serino affidavit been published anyplace? From the reports I've seen, it's not clear to me that there is anything unusual about it.

But in Serino's account, TM and Z exchange words in that first encounter. That's what has me puzzled.

According to Tracy Martin, the Sanford, Fla., detective recounted this sequence of events: Trayvon Martin walked up to Zimmerman's vehicle and asked why he was following him. Zimmerman denied following the youth and rolled up the car window. Minutes after Trayvon walked away, Zimmerman got out of his vehicle.
Then came the second encounter, according to Tracy Martin's recollection of the detective's account. Trayvon Martin appeared from behind a building in Zimmerman's gated community, approached him and demanded, "What's your problem, homie?" ...

The second paragraph of that tracks Z's testimony, as told by brother and father, but what about the first paragraph? That doesn't correspond with the time-frame of the recorded Z call with dispatch.

-- It's more than a theory, I'd say. This is on the recording of Zimmerman's call to police, and there's no reason to think Zimmerman was fabricating this account - although I'm not sure I'd call it a "confrontation" --

That's what I'm trying to reconcile and figure out. Where did the first conversation, words exchanged and window rolled up (then a wait of minutes) come from?

I think Serino described an exchange of words between TM and Z - and this could NOT coincide with Z's phone call to dispatch. So how did Serino come to this belief? Did Z give a statement that included a first verbal exchange?