diff --git a/git-prompt.c b/git-prompt.c
index 5d8335e..5c3824a 100644
--- a/git-prompt.c
+++ b/git-prompt.c
@@ -123,8 +123,9 @@ int main() {
                                   remote, "/", branch, "...HEAD --count"));
     char count[32] = {};
     fread(count, 1, sizeof(count), process.out);
-    if (process_close(process) == 0 && strcmp("0", trim(count))) {
-      append(prompt, 2, "↑", trim(count));
+    int ahead = process_close(process) == 0 && strcmp("0", trim(count));
+    if (ahead) {
+      append(prompt, 2, " ↑", trim(count));
     }
 
     // get the number of commits behind the remote
@@ -135,7 +136,7 @@ int main() {
     memset(count, 0, sizeof(count));
     fread(count, 1, sizeof(count), process.out);
     if (process_close(process) == 0 && strcmp("0", trim(count))) {
-      append(prompt, 2, "↓", trim(count));
+      append(prompt, 2, ahead ? "↓" : " ↓", trim(count));
     }
   }
   append(prompt, 1, " ");