I’ll wait as you read this lesson about phone etiquette

Nedda suddenly stopped talking. I looked up from reading a text message on my cellphone to see why.

“Take your time,” Nedda said, stabbing her salad with a fork. She’d wait.

When my cellphone dinged the arrival of a text message, I had read it without thinking. But it was as if I had walked away in the middle of our conversation.

Nedda wasn’t mad, just matter of fact. “I’ll wait,” she said.

She just wasn’t going to compete for my attention. I dropped my phone into my purse.

Because Nedda is a wise woman. She has this other move. When we talk on the phone, and she suddenly must go, she quickly says, “Love you. Bye!” and hangs up.

Now technically, she hung up on me, sometimes even midsentence. But I can’t be mad, because she also told me that she loves me.

I stole that move, and then I stole this one:

I’m sharing it with you because July is National Cell Phone Courtesy Month. (It’s also Lasagna Awareness Month, but I’m going to let you handle that yourself.)

Now, while dining with my son or sipping wine with friends, if someone pulls out a cellphone and scrolls through Facebook or checks emails, I stop talking.

“Take your time,” I say when they look up. They tuck away their phones every time.

It is rude. I think we forget that because we’re used to seeing the tops of people’s heads instead of their faces.

Sure, if your kids are with a babysitter, or your mom is sick, or you’re expecting an e-mail from your boss, a quick glance at your phone to make sure everything is all right is fine.

But we are on our phones. All. The. TIME. So much of how we connect and communicate happens on those handheld screens.

So, when we are face-to-face, we should focus on the other face, OK?

Love you. Bye.