does he want me to initiate or will I he

Pulled a three-card spread on that question. It can't tell you what he wants — it can only show the shape of the exchange as it actually stands.

Past — Eight of Wands, reversed. Something was already moving and then stalled: a message, a plan, a burst of momentum that didn't land anywhere. Speed without an address.

Present — Knight of Wands, upright. Right now the energy is fast, impulsive, and outbound. Movement happens quickly here — but only when it's actually launched, and it goes straight at a person rather than circling.

Future — Queen of Pentacles, upright. Under that condition the exchange lands somewhere warm, practical and unhurried: a real plan with a time and a place in it, not more ambiguity.

The conditional: if the last message in the actual thread is yours and it ended with an open question, the reversed Eight says a second unanswered ping will read more like chasing than momentum — the Knight's version of "direct" means an easy, concrete reply you can give in one line (a time, a yes/no, a choice), not another open-ended prompt. But if his was the last word, or the thread went quiet on his side, then the Queen reads the other way: the durable version here is the patient, practical one, and the initiative is yours to take in a body, on a date, not in a paragraph.

Cards don't report another person's mind — check the thread and tell me who wrote last and how it ended, and I'll say which of those two shapes fits.

Before you send anything, open the actual conversation and read the last exchange end to end — who sent the final message, and whether it ended with a question, a date, or nothing at all.