ghost phase

a completely natural, albeit uncomfortable, phase of courtship where a girl who had initially shown interest in a guy during the early talking stages, confusingly and often quite suddenly ghosts him. During this phase, which can last anywhere from a week to a couple of months, there is no communication by the girl to the guy in order for her to determine his level of interest. Very frequently she will ignore any attempts at communication, so much so that should the pair pass by each other, for instance in the dining hall of a college campus, she will offer an apathetic head nod or cold formal “hello”, and leave the guy scratching his head wondering where the hell he went wrong. The guy has 3 options from this point: 1) if he is very interested in her, he may continue pursuing her through this phase, and wait until the phase is over and she resumes normal communication, 2) he can attempt to turn the tables against her and ghost her (thus running the risk of the courtship fizzling out), or 3) he can decide to end his pursuit and move onto the next girl, thus simultaneously ending the courtship and ghost phase. If he has chosen option 1 and continues his pursuit through the ghost phase, he must realize that when the ghost phase eventually terminates, he has played directly into her hands, and she will highly likely utilize his interest to her advantage throughout the later stages of the courtship, throughout the dating phase, and, in due course, during the couples’ marriage!