Sending your lady of choice a text message is like dipping your toe in the water before jumping into the pool – easy and almost risk-free. The big difference is that the pool water won’t leave you hanging for a day before telling you whether it’s icy cold or steaming hot. So how do you interpret it when she takes her time to reply?
It’s a good thing!
We’ve all heard the age-old advice of waiting until the next day to call. The same rules are meted out to women too. We think that if we wait until the next day to reply to your text, we’re just playing by the rules which are meant to help us score the man. The idea is to show we’re not desperate, even though we sometimes are!
At least she responded at all…
Getting a reply is certainly better than not getting a reply, even if it is hugely belated. Not replying would send a fairly strong signal that she is not interested – barring circumstances that prevent her from replying, such as running out of credit or accidentally flushing her phone in the time between you getting her number and sending her a text.
Do you then have to delay your reply?
If you want to play it cool, don’t respond the second you get her message. But don’t try to beat her at her own game and take even longer to reply than she did, because if she realizes you’re also delaying your response, she might echo your behavior and the text conversation will have a slow and painful death.
If you want to show you’re keen, send her a response half an hour or so after receiving her message. This will show her that you’re not overly keen, but are interested and that she is special enough to elicit a swift response from you. Sending her a quick reply is also useful to gauge whether she has taken a long time because she is playing by the rules; or if she’s just not interested but is too polite to completely ignore you.
What if she does it twice in a row?
So you’ve texted her, and she’s taken her time in texting back. Excited to receive a message from her, you’ve replied straight away, only to have her take another day to respond. This is generally not a good sign. If you respond as soon as you receive her text, you can be fairly sure that she is currently within easy reach of her phone. Perhaps she needs time to formulate a reply, but it if takes her more than an hour or so, she’s probably trying to subtly convey her disinterest. If you really like her, then keep trying to contact her, but don’t hold out too much hope.
It’s difficult enough to interpret what a text is supposed to mean, let alone trying to figure out the hidden meaning behind reply times. Don’t get too disheartened if a woman takes a while to text back- that she did eventually respond is a great sign.
