What Does “I’ll Call You” Mean?
In the English language, technically, “I’ll call you” literally means “one day in the near future, I will pick up my phone and I will dial your telephone number and you will pick up on the other line and we will talk.” I. Will. Call. You. But, in the modern dating world, “I’ll call you” kind of seems to mean, well, nothing. Has this phrase become the modern equivalent of “um”; is it just a filler? As examples, I have two new Boystories for you …
Boy #1. I’m on my way to work and I pass an absolutely gorgeous man on the street. He smiles. I smile back. I keep walking. Something propels me to turn around to check if he’s looking at me. He is. He jogs back towards me to say hello. Actually, wait … Before I continue with the story, I’d just like to say that this isn’t the first time that I met a boy on the street. Remember Tony, the Italian boy from Brooklyn who loves his momma? I should have learned my lesson. But, apparently I didn’t, so whatever, okay, now I’ll carry on … So, the boy jogs up to me, right? Yada yada yada he gives me his telephone number. He’s tall. He’s cute. I eventually call him. When he picks up the phone, he asks me to hold on for a minute. I do. I hear a bunch of rumbling and then I notice smooth background music. He returns to the phone and his voice is a little deeper than it was before. He says that he would like to cook me dinner for our first date. I tell him, “I have to go now, but I’ll call you later.” Of course, I don’t. And, I won’t.
Boy #2. I know Boy #2 through a friend-of-a-friend-kind-of-situation. He asks me for my telephone number at the top of the year, but then he doesn’t call me for three weeks. When he does call, we agree to go on a date. I have an absolutely wonderful time; the best date in New York yet. When it is over, he leans in to kiss me. He tells me that he thinks that we have a lot in common and he really enjoyed our date. He sounds sincere. He says that he’ll call me the next day so that we can talk again before I leave for my business trip. He doesn’t. I just returned back to New York the other day and he still hasn’t called. And, honestly, I don’t know if he will.
So, what exactly does “I’ll Call You” Mean?
