Humans exhibit different types of nonverbal interactive behaviors during social interactions (e.g., mutual gaze, social referencing, participation). Mutual engagement, or simultaneous looking, is one of the vehicles for reciprocal non-verbal social communication. It remains unknown however to what extent mutual engagement requires mutual eye contact. Here we investigated the prevalence of those behaviors in 9 dyads (N=18) who wore dual eye tracking eyeglasses while engaging in a real-life social interaction and time spent in three possible mutual engagement regions of interest combinations were analyzed (Eyes-Eyes [EE]; Eyes-Mouth [EM]; Mouth-Mouth [MM]). On average, while interacting, dyads spent more time in unidirectional (social referencing, participation) than in bidirectional gaze exchanges (mutual gaze). The prevalence of interactive behaviors was affected by perceived partner likability such that higher reported likability within a dyad led to more interactive behavior. In addition, participants looked at faces the most during interactions and engaged in all three mutual gaze dROI combinations, with the most time spent in EM, followed by EE, and MM mutual gaze combinations. Thus, mutual gaze does not appear to require ‘locking gaze’ as the eye region did not serve as the exclusive mechanism for mutual engagement. Together, these results provide new insights into the dynamics of real-life interactive behaviors and highlight the role of larger social variables in those communicative patterns.