what we talk about when we talk about love

…

…is trying to show the nature of love. The author, by using a conversation between two couples, shows us that love starts off misunderstood, and will either die off as the relationship progresses, or will develop into something much more meaningful. While one could argue that some of the comments the characters made were purely out of intoxication and were therefore meaningless, it is also possible that the characters were letting out their true feelings.