He was consistently kind, emotionally supportive, and thoughtful, and I felt a genuine bond with him. At one point, he expressed that he wanted to be with me, but I was clear that a relationship wasn't possible because he is about 10-11 years older than me and has a daughter. We both agreed that dating wasn't realistic and decided to keep things as friends, even though things did go a little further at times. We were both aware that it was never going to turn into a relationship.

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When I met my boyfriend, I chose to cut things off with him out of respect for my relationship, not because anything negative had happened between us. That was emotionally difficult for me, and although we stopped talking, we never fully removed each other from social media, so the connection remained visible but inactive.

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Recently, after my breakup, I removed photos of my ex from social media. I reacted to one of his posts, and he engaged back lightly - responding to a poll posted and hearting one of my stories, which stood out because he hadn't interacted with my content in a long time.

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Because I liked what we had before and felt comfortable with him, I reached out with the intention that, if we talked again, it would be as friends. Looking at the messages, what do y'all think - is no response better than replying "oh okay," or is it better to respond? I probably just expected a bit more

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