I hate seeing when someone has read my messages and still hasn’t replied, but I’m addicted to those two little ticks! One guy really put me off this feature by leaving me on “read” for an entire year before he decided to come back for another shot as if nothing had happened. Who does that??
- At first, I just figured he was busy. I didn’t want to overreact by the fact that he left me on “read” for a few hours, so I put it out of my mind. I went on with my day, wondering when he’d actually get in touch and looking forward to it. However, I was still feeling a bit anxious because the message he wasn’t responding to was one in which I was asking him to hang out sometime.
- To be fair, we’d been talking for two weeks and still hadn’t met up. We’d met on a dating app and soon took our chats offline. We shared a lot of laughs via text and seemed to have quite a bit in common, so when he mentioned that he also loved yoga, I decided to be bold and make a move. I invited him to my yoga class… and then he went AWOL.
- What was taking him so long? The guy didn’t answer me for hours. When the day was over, I was tempted to text him before bedtime to say goodnight but I decided against it. I wasn’t going to chase the guy. If he wanted to lose out on an opportunity to build something real (or at least just have a fun afternoon out), that was on him.
- Days went by and I started to worry. I started to wonder what happened. I mean, the guy hadn’t been online in days! I worried that something bad had happened to him but I didn’t want to reach out to him again so I checked him out on social media. Turns out, he was totally fine. He was posting updates, sharing memes, and talking to other people on his Facebook wall. I felt like an idiot.
- I thought he would come to his senses. I kept checking to see if he was back on WhatsApp where we’d recently been chatting and he did come back online a few days after I sent him that message. I expected him to send me a text but nothing happened. Had he ghosted me? Why would he disappear on me like that? It would’ve been so much better if he’d just told me that he didn’t want to go on a date and we could’ve left it at that, but no. This was so unfair. It was a kick to my confidence and caused me stress I really didn’t deserve.
- I was tempted to tell him off but I didn’t. I stuck to my guns because I didn’t want to contact him again. I didn’t want him to think, “Oh, she’s so upset that I don’t like her that she’s contacting me again” while his ego inflated to the size of Texas.
- A whole year passed. I moved on with my life. I stayed single but it suited me. Then, one day, I got a message from a number I didn’t recognize. It read, “Hey, stranger.” The number was familiar but I couldn’t place it. I checked the person’s WhatsApp profile pic and realized it was the guy who went AWOL on me a year previously. WTF?
- His message was so insulting. Acting like I’d been the one to disappear by calling ME the “stranger” was infuriating. “Hey, stranger” is one of the most irritating texts to receive. I didn’t reply to his message, thinking it would be nice to give him some of his own poisonous medicine. He texted me again! Clearly this guy wasn’t ashamed of his behavior.
- His message was laughable. He said he was sorry for disappearing but he’d had a chaotic year. He still wanted to meet up in real life if I was into it. What? Was this guy for real or was this a practical joke? I didn’t even bother replying. It was my turn to leave him on “read”—forever! I promptly blocked him.
