Byline: Helen Puttick
It's the joy of text . . . when love blossoms by mobile phone messages. But Helen Puttick finds love on the line may not be all it seems
Porcelain BangleTHREE bleeps sound in succession, each one higher pitched than the one before.
Someone nearby has just received a text message. Men reach into their jacket pockets, women their handbags, and within minutes one of them is beeping back a reply. The others return to their drinks or computers hiding the pinch of jealousy felt because their mobile has lain silent all day.
Text talk is the new black on the communication catwalk. A billion messages are dispatched by mobile every month, everyone who knows anyone is receiving them. And it is also the dating weapon of the decade.
Men out on the pull will tap a girl's number into their mobile phone where it won't be lost, unlike the ripped beer mat used in yesteryear. Next day, they can casually send a message - 'R U hungover?' and wait for the reply. It's a lot less forward than phoning up and asking for a date, but it is driving towards the same aim.
James McQueen, 34, from Leith, admits his friends start most of their relationships with girls flirting in text from their mobile phones.
"They'll meet someone at, say Beluga, and take their number," he says. "Then over the next few days they'll send fairly flirtatious messages. It is quite exciting wondering what response you will get. You wonder if she will ever speak to you again, but then sometimes you will get a reply which is quite exciting.
"Eventually, you will get around to arranging to meet up, but this way you don't have to do that straight away."
However, flirting way beyond arms' reach is not always as harmless as it may seem. One Edinburgh girl ran up a $127 bill texting someone a mutual friend thought she would find compatible. On their first encounter she discovered he was not, as claimed, anything like Joey from Friends but in fact ten times his size.
Meanwhile, Zoe MacRea, 33 and also from the city, fell in love over a string of long-distance phone calls and a mass of messages from a man she hardly knew.
She met Tom Becks, 34, purely by chance at the reception of her office. They exchanged chat, but not phone numbers, before going their separate ways. However, both were intrigued by the encounter and rang each other's companies hoping to speak the next day.
Those calls were the first in a phoneline relationship which would eventually cost Tom $2000 in bills.
Dimmable LED Down Light K1107 - 1x1W / 1x3WHe worked on the road with a band and was just off on a four-month tour, crossing Europe and constantly changing schedule.
Almost immediately, the rapid fire of text messages began. Ten to 15 times a day, the three-tone signal would sound and each would check their mobile phone.
"It was like a courtship," recalls Zoe fondly. "We really got to know each other. We talked via phone, but we shared a lot through text message.
"Without it we would have probably continued to speak on the phone, but we would not have got so close so quickly. It was really intense. It was really memorable. It was really tender."
She describes the messages sent as often "deep and meaningful." Hopes and dreams for the future were bleeped out.
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