A slow answer can be thoughtful without being a promise of the answer you want.

Silence gets read optimistically, especially when you are waiting on something you want. A quick no would have stung, so the absence of one starts to feel like progress: they are considering it seriously, they would have said no by now. Sometimes that is true. Often the delay is about their week rather than your case.

Ask when you can expect to hear, which is a fair question and turns waiting into a known interval. Keep the other options moving while you wait. And try not to spend the wait deciding what the silence means, since it usually means very little.