What to text a girl after you exchanged numbers on Tinder

The way she handed over the number tells you a lot. If she said 'text me' in the middle of a funny exchange, she's signalling that the conversation was going well and she's open to continuing it somewhere more direct. If she sent it in a flat or short message, or only after you pushed for it, she may be testing your interest or just being polite. Look at what she was talking about right before the number. Her last message, the question she asked, the thing she laughed at, all of that is your opening material.

Also look at her profile again. Plenty of women leave a detail that invites a text: a restaurant they keep mentioning, a dog in three photos, a half-finished joke in the prompts. Those details tell you what she's likely to respond to. A first text that uses one of them will almost always get a better answer than one that starts from nothing.

The strongest first texts continue an actual topic. If you were talking about her Lisbon trip, reference the part you found most interesting and say something that shows you were paying attention. Then leave room for her to say something back, usually by asking about one specific thing rather than a broad question. A narrow question is easier to answer than 'what's your week like?', and an easy answer keeps the conversation moving.

Keep the text short enough that she doesn't have to scroll to take it in. A couple of lines reads as relaxed. A paragraph reads as you preparing for a test. Tone matters too: match the energy of your app messages, so the switch to texting doesn't feel like a different person showed up.

Once you've sent the first text, the next move belongs to her. Sending a second message before she responds signals anxiety and makes the first text look like a warm-up instead of a real message. If she's quiet, give it a reasonable window, usually most of a day, depending on when you sent it and what time zone she's in. Late at night or early morning is a bad time to judge silence.

If she replies with something short, reply in a way that keeps it going without pushing for more than she offered. If she replies warmly and asks you something back, answer properly and add one thing about yourself. If she doesn't reply at all after a couple of days, one light follow-up referencing the same topic is fine. After that, let it go, because a third unanswered text tells her more about you than you meant to share.