What is the best response to the one-liner "goodnight"? Assuming there was no recent interaction?

Quick summary for background:
Went out with HB10 hired gun (pageant winner), realized at one point she has issues with my physique (she's a lot taller and into bigger men ... I'm skinny). I did pick up IOI, but she is resistant to my physical advances. I did touchy-feely a lot, but I didn't get any back. She did move for a good-night kiss on the check which I gave and regretted later on. She knew I was totally into her.

Long story short I went a bit overboard and ended up being a spineless nice guy AFC. I wasn't strong enough to take her on. Went home feeling like an idiot and resolved to just learn and forget all about it. Next day total freeze out. Then around 12 midnight she texts "Goodnight". I don't know how to react, or if I should even respond.

She's a really nice person. Genuinely nice. So maybe it's just her being nice, or just seeking attention, or maybe it's a mass-text to all the guys she's texting (I notice she texts a lot when we were together, she has a lot of suitors).

Smiley face or no response, then ping her back without referencing her throw away text. I get these after-date texts all the time when I dont f-close and from experience I can tell you they are best ignored or demurred, as the chick is basically just using the text to calibrate your interest level which is best left a mystery to her.

Thanks detox for sharing your experience. Makes sense, though I wish I thought of it a little earlier. We did text a bit the night of our date (initiated by her) but I went over by calling her.

Anyhow I went ahead and texted her "Goodnight" back 2 hours later, an exact mirror of what she sent me. Don't really care much at this point what happens, working on 2-3 other girls now but would be nice to nail this challenge as part of personal growth.

I'll report back if ever I she contacts me again, but for now I hope you guys learned something from my experience and from detox75's advice.

I'd leave it at her saying "goodnight"; you don't need to give her enough attention and thought to reply to a 1 liner - if you don't reply she wouln't think anything negative or even ask why you didn't reply (I've never had this happen) and if she does you can put in a DHV and say you were out doing an activity with your friends and she should go next time if her bedtime permits
Not replying show's you're not focused on her, you don't need her approval through text because you have so much other stuff going on in your life (I.E. the 2-3 other girls you talked about) that she has to compete with for you
(also, when you get a girl that doesn't like touchy-feely to break, it feels AWESOME and is a HUGE ego boost, don't stop trying)

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To game at your best you have to be willing to do your worst.

Don't text her until the next morning and say "oh...were you thinking about me as you were going to sleep?"

she obviously was, which is a good sign. Btw, pagent girls are a different breed and generally are in to connected and rich guys. Play that up if you can.

Love the responses charblad and Natty.

charblad: ditto on not responding, I just didn't want to come of as an a-hole so I knew I wanted to respond somehow, but didn't know how/what to say.

Not sure I follow you on the touchy-feely part. Should I feel awesome if the girl doesn't reciprocate? It made me feel like shit like I was the neediest guy in the world. It was painful for me to keep it up but I wanted to be consistent. Even when she leaned in for me to give her a goodnight kiss on the damn cheek I was like WTF did I just do? I just gave her what she wanted dammit. In retrospect I think I should have pushed her away and said no, I don't want your cheek and kissed her on the lips right there and then. I don't know.

Natty: Yes she is connected to rich guys, good point on that. I am not even on the same level and don't want to end up being her provider. What do you mean by "play that up"?