The dilemma

It's Saturday. Your phone buzzes: "Our booth, 6pm? missed you." Same booth, same time you two have shared almost every week for ten years. The party joke still sits in your chest, and so does the empty birthday table from last month. Her apology that night ran long, longer than she usually bothers with. In three hours she will be there, or she won't. Your thumb hovers over the reply.

Your options

1. Say "see you at 6" and let the bad month go. Ten years of Saturdays outweigh it.
2. Agree to come, on one condition: tonight the two of you talk straight.
3. Hold off with a "maybe", and decide once you see if she even shows.