Quick brief:

I work in a hospital, patient comes in, i'm chatting with her as i do all patients making jokes to try and make them feel better.

But this one girl is eating it up, she's smiling and giggling to jokes that aren't even partiuclarly funny. IOI's through the roof.

Of course i don't ask her out right there and then, professionalism and all that.

Lo and Behold, I go the the cafe down the street where i usually eat my lunch, and she's in line ordering her coffee. I ask her to have lunch with me, and she agrees, the entire time it's the same thing: Laughing, smiling, twirling her hair, etc...

Definitely interested, i finish lunch and get her number, we arrange to meet the next day in the evening for drinks, i say ill pick her up, she's down.

I text her the next day at around 3PM, something along the lines of "Hey it's XYZ, is Six O'clock good for you?"

No response for four hours, and then i get "Hey i actually have a boyfriend, and i didn't want to be a jerk, sorry for leading you on".

My eyes almost rolled out of my skull. I talked to this girl for almost an hour, flirted with her, did some light kino, and at no point, not even in passing did the word "Boyfriend" come up...

I suspect she feels guilty about dumping hey boyfriend or whatever. I've taken the L and moved forward, but my question is:

What would've been the best way to proceed after getting that text

I responded with "Happens to the best of us" and stopped texting her after that. Is that the best course of action, or what would yall have done/do?