“Oh, and ask him when he’s available.”

“Is that too aggressive?”

“Maybe you should just wait another day before texting him?”

“Tania, she’s already waited three days!”

“But how do we know he’s not going to—”

“How about this?” I interrupted, impatient. “‘Hey, you! Had a great time the other night. Looking forward to seeing you again. Let me know when you’re free.’” I held up my phone so they could see the message.

“Flirty yet casual.”

“But still direct.”

“Maybe too direct?”

“No, not at all. It’s perfect,” Liv said, giving me a thumbs-up.

“Should I put an exclamation mark at the end?” I asked.

“No, that’s definitely too eager,” Tania said, shaking her head.

“Didn’t you put a winky face in the last message?” I said, annoyed.

“I think the exclamation shows that she’s bubbly and excited.”

“A bit too excited.”

“I think she should.”

“But she’s already got one exclamation mark in there!”

“I didn’t know there were also rules against punctuation!”

We finally settled on a smiley face—which was just as friendly without being as high risk. I checked the message and then double-checked once more before finally clicking SEND, and then the four of us waited. Almost instantly, the “read time” showed up below my message.

“He read it!” I shrieked. We all crowded around the screen anxiously waiting for the three dots to appear that would indicate his reply. A few minutes passed. Then ten. After about fifteen minutes, I started to feel the lump reemerging in my throat. Why hasn’t he replied? He’s obviously seen my message. It even said he read it . . . What could be his reason? Did he not have a good time? Does he not want to see me again? This was not a scenario I had expected. I blinked back hot tears of disappointment as I tried to figure out what his nonreply could mean.

“Maybe he just clicked on your message accidentally but didn’t really read it?”

“Maybe he’s in the middle of something and can’t respond right now?”

“Maybe he needs more time to come up with a witty, well-crafted response?”

“Maybe he dropped his phone?”

“Or maybe his phone got stolen just as he was about to text you back!”

After about twelve additional maybes, Hannah, Liv, and Tania came to the conclusion that Zain would most likely text me later. Not most likely, but most certainly. He would most certainly text me later, they reassured me. I really hoped they were right.

* * *

After I got home that night, I checked my phone about a thousand times, rereading my text and overanalyzing every single word. I never should have put in that smiley face! It was too juvenile. I should’ve just used the extra exclamation mark. Why did I let them talk me out of it? In the back of my mind, I knew I was being irrational. But when I still didn’t hear anything the following day, or the day after, I conference-called my friends, hoping they could offer me some insight.