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"So what are you looking for?"

It arrives directly, and usually earlier than expected. Say something serious and you have made a promise to someone you have met twice. Say you are seeing what happens and you have told her she is a way to pass the time. Both are true for most people and both sound wrong said out loud.

The move

What to send

Send this

I'm looking for a genuine partner in crime. Someone who doesn't take herself too seriously, but is serious about building an incredible life. The kind of dynamic where we're both each other's biggest fans and biggest challengers.

What it means

What she's actually doing

The question sounds like it is asking you to pick a category, which is why the answers to it come out badly. She is not auditing your intentions — she is trying to work out what being with you would actually be like. So describe the dynamic instead of the label: what the two of you would be to each other, not which box it goes in. A description commits you to nothing and gives her something to picture, which a category never does.

Before you send it

When this backfires

Low, as long as you answer it. Turning the question aside with a joke reads as evasion, and evasion here is itself taken as an answer.

Not these

Three texts that end it

  • Don't send

    Someone honest, fun, loyal, drama-free, likes to travel.

    It is a list, and it is the same list as everyone else's. It describes a candidate rather than a relationship, and it leaves her feeling assessed.

  • Don't send

    Not sure, just seeing what's out there. No pressure haha.

    The "no pressure" is doing the apologising. It says you have not thought about it, which is less attractive than any answer you might have thought of.

  • Don't send

    To find my soulmate.

    Too much, too early, aimed at someone you barely know. It puts the weight of a decision on a conversation that has not earned one.

One line, written for your conversation

The text above works because of what it does, not because of the words. Screenshot the thread and Valerius reads what she actually said, where it stands, and writes the next message in your voice.

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If that is not quite it