Some friendships need a little distance to stay friendships.

Not every bond is built for daily contact. Some people you love best with a gap in between, because the gap is what lets you turn up glad to see each other instead of raw from a hundred small frictions. Pulling back a little is not a downgrade or a soft ending. Often it is the thing that keeps a friendship alive long enough to get old.

If one has gone scratchy lately, try seeing that person once in the next few weeks instead of every day, and give it a shape. You may find the friendship was fine and only the frequency was wrong.