I really want you to like me, to think of me as a friend. Not like, a good friend, but at least an acquaintance. I’m not actually going to ask you to lunch, though. I’m just going to say that we should get lunch.
We all do it. You run into the nice guy from your criminology class, or the friend of a friend who you wish you knew better or that really sweet girl who lived on your hall freshman year who you used to go with to Phi Psi parties. So what do you do? You have two to eight minutes to kill (between your 11 meetings today or an appointment with your chronically late professor), so you stop and talk. Remember how much you liked them? Their research is interesting, they did something really cool over Fall Break, they also love that particular Sweetgreen salad, etc. So what do we do? Say those four little words that I am so addicted to: “Let’s do lunch sometime?” I say it all the time, to almost everyone. I do not have enough days in a week to get lunch with all these people. I know this, but I still say it every time.
Now, there are different ways of saying it. We should hang out soon? Lunch maybe? Call me, we’ll do lunch? I miss seeing you, we should catch up? But they all share the same important message. I am not giving a defined date. I am not putting it into my already far–too–busy and color–coded iCalendar. I might not even have your number, and I might not be able to literally call you (not that I was going to). We are not actually going to get lunch. But I am not the only bad one here. You agreed to do lunch but never called me—this is a two–way street. I know, I shouldn’t lie to you. I should call you. But I am awkward, and I am busy and I am addicted.
