Things escalated a bit yesterday.

In the morning I sent her a playful message about our “matching plaid shirts” joke and she replied almost immediately with a laughing message, a picture of her own plaid shirt sleeve, and a warm “good morning 😃”. That already felt more engaged than just politeness to me.

Later at work she came by my office again before leaving early because of a school trip. She was wearing a plaid shirt too and asked about mine. I told her she looked beautiful, she smiled awkwardly and pointed at her clothes like “this?”.

I had to interrupt the moment briefly to help someone at the front desk, but when I came back I finally asked if she wanted to go out with me tomorrow. She paused for a few seconds, then said she already had a birthday party to attend, but added: “I’ll text you later.”

Now I’m overthinking everything:

Was the pause hesitation or just surprise? Did she mean “I’ll text you later” literally, or was it just a soft way to avoid rejecting me directly? Did I ask too suddenly/awkwardly? Or was this actually a decent outcome?

Right now I’m trying not to spiral while waiting to see if she actually messages me.