Emotionally intelligent people are the advice-givers among their group of friends. Do you have a friend who seems to know what you're feeling before you've verbalized it? This friend is emotionally intelligent. There are many of those people in the world. They are the healers, the untrained therapists among friends.
"Oh, ask Stacy. She always knows what to do." Stacy is emotionally intelligent. That's why she knows what your boyfriend is thinking having never had more than a five-minute conversation with the dude.