If you go looking for disrespect, you’ll find it in a slow reply, a short laugh and a missing emoji.

Your brain finds whatever you send it out to look for. Set it hunting for insults and it comes back with a slow text, a laugh that ended early, a message with nothing on the end of it. None of those were built to mean anything. They became evidence only because you were already running a case.

When you catch yourself collecting small proofs, notice what mood you were in before the collecting started. Usually it is tiredness or one bad hour rather than a person. Ask what else that slow reply could mean, and give the boring explanation a turn first.