"Remain hopeful" is a strange turn of phrase, sounds like there's some risk of him leaving?
Do you ever get sick of making mountains out of mole hills? Or turning everything someone says in to a potential drama, it was honeyman yesterday and now this.... Remain hopeful is a term used loads when it comes to contracts, if he came out with "he will be signing soon" you'd have a problem if he didn't sign or it took longer than your thought "soon" should be