I’m Not Overthinking. I’m Conducting an Extremely Unnecessary Investigation.

He said “okay.”

Okay.

Just okay.

No full stop?

Interesting.

Maybe he’s annoyed.

Maybe he’s busy.

Maybe something happened.

Maybe I said something.

Let’s review the conversation.

Actually, let’s review the last six conversations.

Let’s examine punctuation.

Let’s consider tone.

Let’s consult the group chat.

Let’s create a spreadsheet.

STOP.

Sometimes “okay” means okay.

Sometimes people are busy.

Sometimes there is genuinely nothing hiding underneath the message.

Your brain is just trying to protect you by solving problems that don’t exist yet.

So breathe.

Put the phone down.

Don’t send another message.

And whatever you do…

Do not start decoding emojis.

That’s where things get dangerous.