I wonder if 87 days has a similar meaning to 40 days and 40 nights, which in biblical terms means "a really long time".
Also, did Ah Meng's message EVER go through so she understood that she DID send a message and could tell her that she didn't get it? It seems like that bit of info would have solved all of the problems... Something like, "Why didn't you at least send me a message?" "I did?" "What?" [look at each other's phones...] "Oh... damn... Sorry... I had no idea why you weren't there and he was just going to walk in the rain. I felt bad making him do that..." "Oh... well... I kinda understand that..."