The Matter of Who Is Coming Count

Priya sent the message at noon.

Saturday, my place, dinner. Who's in?

By three o'clock she had received: two "sounds goods," one "likely," one heart emoji, one "might be able to," one "check with me Friday," and a voice note from Rohit that she had not yet opened because voice notes while commuting felt like homework.

She opened a notes app. She wrote: Confirmed: 2. Likely: 2. Unknown: 3.

Then she stared at the word likely and realized it meant nothing.

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Arjun replied at five. Should be there, just depends on timing.

Priya stared at "depends on timing" for a long moment. Everything depends on timing. Timing is not a piece of information.

She moved Arjun to a new category labeled: Schrodinger's guest.

---

By Thursday she had a working model of Saturday's attendance. The model ranged from four people to nine people, with a confidence interval she had stopped trusting. She had planned food for seven. This was, she understood, a feeling rather than a calculation.

Meera texted: What should I bring?

Priya wrote back: Nothing! because asking a maybe-guest to bring something felt like extracting a commitment they had not offered.

She then bought two extra bottles of wine and a backup bag of chips, which was the same as asking Meera to bring something, just more expensive.

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Saturday arrived. Six people came. One person who had said "maybe" appeared without warning. One person who had said "definitely" sent a message at 6:47 PM that said: so sorry, long story.

The six people ate well. The food was enough. The chips were not opened.

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Priya messaged the group afterward. That was great, let's do it again.

Eleven thumbs-up reactions appeared within the hour. Everyone had a good time. No one had technically committed to being there.

Both things were true. Neither was going to change.

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The second ambiguous RSVP creates precedent. By the third, vagueness is the format. Everyone follows the format, including Priya.