He did at least speak with Jeffries, so it's possible that neither side is ready to talk at this point and that it may take actual votes for them to talk turkey... from McCarthy's perspective, it makes sense to find out for certain whether Gaetz has the votes or whether this is all bluster before doing any negotiations.
Having said that, I don't think people really understand the picture well here.... I think people (media and even here in this thread) are looking at it mostly from the Democratic perspective, but it's important to understand the landscape from McCarthy's vantagepoint as well.
McCarthy likely believes (and is probably correct in this belief) that ANY deal with Democrats will be the end of his leadership career past this Congress given the makeup of his caucus and the types of voters who engage in GOP Primaries. Maybe there comes a point in this process where relying on Dem votes for his confidence/supply becomes the best of a lot of terrible options, but we are a VERY long way away from that at this point.
And maybe the best leverage he has to maintain the job isn't through Dem votes, but through the fact that there very well maybe no other people who can get the requisite votes from the GOP Caucus, and to the extent that there is anyone who could get the votes, they may not want the job because this GOP Caucus / 4-vote House Majority is basically ungovernable.