He takes too long to text you.

You are waiting for his text for hours and by the time he texts you, your excitement to hear from him has dissipated.

It has been replaced with annoyance or disappointment in him for not texting you sooner.

By this time, you have already distracted yourself with talking to friends, family, or doing a task.

You see his belated text message and your first thought is that he texted you too late.

Although there is a slight urge to reply to his text, you stop yourself.

Yes, you aren’t as excited to hear from him as you were a few hours ago, but there is something else happening.

You want payback.

He took hours to text you, so you intend to make him wait for hours for your reply.

A tit for tat so to speak.

It’s human nature.

This is not the first time it has taken him hours to text you.

His bad behavior warrants payback.

Being ignored doesn’t feel good.

You want him to feel what you have been feeling for the last several hours as you waited for his text.

An unwillingness to reply to his belated text is a sign of a loss of excitement and an intent to get back at him for making you wait for hours for his text.

This aside, you are worried about the prospect of getting sucked into yet another conversation with him that leads to the same thing occurring.

What if you reply to his belated text, get into an engrossing conversation with him, and this happens again?

He has you waiting yet again for his text response.

A half hour goes by.

An hour.

Not again.

You are right back in that vortex, waiting on him to reply to your message.

You are weary of that.

So you hesitate to reply to his belated text.

In your mind, you are calculating the likelihood of getting into a conversation with him and history repeating itself after a few text exchanges.

You don’t want that right now.

You were just beginning to have a better day.

While you were waiting for his text for hours, you began doing something else that gave you joy.

You were talking to family or friends.

You were watching your favorite movie or reality show.

Whatever it was, you were gradually forgetting that he hadn’t texted you, and were feeling better.

Suddenly, his belated text arrives, interfering with your happier mood.

The last thing you want is to reply to his belated text and get sucked into a scenario where you are waiting yet again for a reply for hours.

The risk of getting upset again at his bad behavior is too great.

So as not to ruin the happier mood you are in, you don’t reply to his text.