Your buddy Dave has been single for three years and thinks "hey u up" is a valid strategy. Your other buddy Mike just got dumped and told you to "just be yourself."
You showed them her text. You asked them to decode the emoji. You drafted four responses and sent the screenshot to the group chat for a vote.
She's been waiting forty minutes.
Put the phone down. Stop crowdsourcing your love life. Type something that sounds like you. Hit send. Then go do literally anything else with your evening.
There are ZERO things humans do that have ONLY logic and rationale to them.
Next Monday you'll feel more confident. After the gym you'll feel more confident. After one more drink you'll feel more confident. After you get a better haircut, a better jacket, a better job.
You've been "getting ready" for two years.
She's standing ten feet away right now. She'll be gone in four minutes. No amount of preparation will manufacture the courage that only comes from moving your feet.
Walk over. Stumble through the first sentence. Let it be clumsy. Let it be imperfect. You will feel more alive in those ten seconds than you have all month.
Not emotionally driven. Biologically driven. It is in our genes to reproduce because of evolution. It is also in our genes to stick together because cooperating as groups increases chances of survival more than otherwise.
Emotions are part of the human makeup however, and as such are part of the evolutionary package that has made the species successful, and is passed on in our genes. You can't separate emotion from our biological drives because it's all a part of the whole. Just like the urge to pair bond is a way to ensure survival of our offspring, and is tied in with our biological drive to reproduce.