Today’s Tell

Wednesday, 2:54 a.m. you are awake

You woke at 2:30, looked at his last message from yesterday afternoon ('hey hope your day is good x'), and now twenty-four minutes later you have drafted three replies. Reply one is short and warm. Reply two adds a soft question. Reply three is the question alone, no warmth, no preamble. You can feel the want to send. The 6 a.m. alarm is in three hours.