An unanswered message can acquire meanings its sender never put into it.

Silence is a blank surface and people fill it with their own material. An unanswered message can mean busy, forgot, unsure what to say, or lost the thread entirely, and the recipient of the silence will usually settle on the interpretation that matches their existing fear.

If you cannot answer properly, send something short saying so, since a placeholder prevents a great deal of invented meaning. And when you are waiting on a silence, hold your interpretation loosely and consider a light follow-up. Most silences turn out to be about the other person’s week.