Could this be innocent

[echofood]

DH was away for a night with work, there is a text message at midnight to female colleague saying 'think had one too many, wishing you were here now' and she replied 'lol, maybe next time'

He couldn't get it up?

The only way you'll find out is to ask him.

He may have missed the question mark off the end of the sentence which would change the context from a statement to a question. But I think a conversation about it would tell you what you need to know.

I can't think of any possible innocent explanation. What made you look at his phone?

No, don't think so.

Why would he wish she was there?

Doesn't sound innocent to me

I'm sure when I ask him he will come up with an explanation and convince me but to me can only mean he was drunk and wanted her there with him and worse told her that

There is nothing innocent about that text. Clearly nothing happened. But there was intent, reciprocity, flirtation and a plan to resume this little "thing" in the future.

It is incorrect behaviour from a married man and whether anything happened or not between them the conversation would be enough.

You need to confront him.

sorry, no, don't think it was innocent either :(

At least a prima facie case of attempted shagging. Bang out of order. First offence?

Sometimes people say stupid things when they're pissed that they would never consider saying when sober. Ditto texts. I hope this is one of those. Stupid, but not really innocent.

Bear in mind though that saying something is different from acting on it. Both guilty of undesirable behaviour but very different degrees.

No I don't know of anything else boris

...maybe next time....???

How often does he have to spend time away with work?

He doesn't stay away that often, about one night a month. He normally goes alone but I think he may have gone with her and another person once

It would make me feel apprehensive.

I would be royally pissed off, but he could mean along the lines of "wish you were here now to keep the drinking down". Maybe she doesn't drink much so normally when she is around things don't get as messy.

But yeah you have to ask him because it could potentially be something way worse.

Um, no.

There is no innocent explanation for that. Unless you are incredibly naive!

Then I suppose you could manage to wrong an innocent explanation from somewhere?

Next time he goes, follow or...get someone else to. You will know then. In the meantime keep schtum until you know. Not innocent is my view.

I checked again as only saw it quickly before and hoped it could be something like kaykayblue said but full message was 'just left the lot, think had one too many, wishing you were here now' (the " lot" are his clients) That doesn't make it better does it?

There's no way it's possible for me to follow him

you need to ask him. but the only other explanation could be he'd been with clients, had 1 too many and behaved in a way that he shouldn't have with them and 'she' would be good at smoothing things over with the clients or be a sobering influence on him , like a minder, so he didn't drink so much when with clients.

But even as I write this it doesn't convince me.

A drunk man's words are a sober man's thoughts.

Or maybe it was this earlier in the evening when they were together:
Her: "Have you been drinking, do I need to give you a ride home? If not, I am leaving now."
Him: "No I'm fine. I'm not drunk. I can get home. See you later."

Later:
Him: "just left the * lot, think had one too many, wishing you were here now"

Oh no OP, that sounds bad. It's very intimate but comfortable suggesting they have already established some sort of relationship.

Sorry OP

I’ve asked him now, he looked a bit shocked that I’d seen it but didn’t make a lot of it, said that he had sent it because he knew she liked that group of clients and would have liked a night out with them. I said it didn’t really make sense to text her after he’d left them if that was the case and that when staying in a hotel texting a woman at midnight saying ‘wishing you were here’ would normally mean something else. He just shrugged it off and said he hadn’t meant that and didn’t think she’d think that.

He’s always very calm and rational and quite quick thinking which is normally great but makes him difficult to read. He was quite convincing in how he said it but what he said wasn’t very convincing.

I'm struggling to think of an innocent way to explain that one away, I'm sorry OP

There's a lie detector coming onto the market soon- honestly- was in the press last week, trialled by a couple in The Times.. Can see it will be snapped up.

Seriously, why did you check his phone?

And if he wanted to be sneaky would he not have deleted that message?