Whether the note is in the form of a letter, IM, email or text the message is not always clear. There it was- the words I’ve been hoping to hear from Grae, just two weeks too late. “I miss you. Come visit me.” I don’t know what the subtext of his text was, or even if he meant to send it at 1:15AM, but I knew what I should to do. After a sleepless night I woke up and still hadn’t responded to his random message. Instead, I thought I would try getting some advice from my friends first.
Later that day, I took a run with Amber around the university and town. After hearing about her sexcapades with her newest man, it was time to get her opinion on the text. She was blunt to say the least. “What’s in the past belongs there. Honey, there are tons of men out there, take one of mine.” Amber didn’t believe in relationships, so she sure as hell didn’t believe in reuniting with an old lover over a single text. I didn’t take one of Amber’s men, but I did take her advice. Though after I dropped Amber off I got to thinking, by not responding was I sending Grae a message? And at 5 that afternoon I still had yet to reply. However, I did decide to explore other possibilities.
His name was Ryan Baxter. He bumped into me while I was walking down Rosedale. He was on his phone and didn’t see me nor did I see him. With the same career goal as me it was odd we’ve never ran into each other before. There I was, standing in front of Sykes when it hit me. There are tons of great men out there. Ryan took me out to dinner later that week. In 7 days we saw one another 4 times, 1 movie, 2 dinners, and a library lunch date. After only a week and countless laughs, I thought that maybe this guy is exactly what I need. Someone strong to lean on, someone sweet to lay on, someone ready to take a risk. While I was receiving messages Noel was sending them.
Noel was no stranger to the text message revolution. With her boyfriend miles away- what better way to quickly communicate I love you then through a text. Due to the time change, they found it easier to text then squeeze in a phone call between classes. With years both together as friends and lovers, Noel and Jeff have had plenty of time to perfect the art of deciphering one another’s non-verbals. Later, I thought about the two of them and I couldn’t help but wonder; do we need a past to understand someone’s subtext? Is there an art to analyzing messages correctly? Or do some people just get it, and other don’t?
Michelle had been seeing a third-grade teacher named Greg Hayes. He was a dark haired, green-eyed nicely built man, and although extremely attractive, he also was extremely clueless. He had no idea of the subtext that his numerous messages were sending. Mr. Hayes was texting and e-mailing non-stop with no reply from Michelle. Ironically, Greg was the one not getting the message-that she wasn’t interested. Michelle quickly deleted Greg out of her BlackBerry and life all together. Perhaps too many messages have just one meaning.desperate.
After staring at the text from the man whom I previously wished no communication from, and running through many different scenario’s in my head there was just one question I had. What was the subtext of Grae’s text? With our fuzzy past it was too hard to correctly analyze the text. Does he truly miss me? Was this is way of saying ‘I’m sorry’ or is New York City just a lonely place? With someone new in the picture I was enjoying the hope of a clearer future. So today, presently, I finally hit delete.