Not every short reply is about you. People get tired, busy and distracted too.

A short answer feels like a message in itself, and it usually is not. People reply in one word because they are on a bus, halfway through something, tired, or simply not a long-message person, and none of that is a comment on you. Filling in a reason for the brevity is the part that does the damage. The guessing is almost always worse than the truth.

When a reply lands flat this week, give it a day before deciding what it meant. If it still sits badly, ask plainly whether everything is fine. One question beats three days of reading into it.