If you can ride in silence with someone and it isn’t awkward, keep them.

Comfortable quiet is a real sign of something, and it is hard to fake. Needing to fill every gap means some part of you is still performing, while a silence that does not itch means neither person is working to be liked. Those friendships tend to survive distance and bad patches. The test costs nothing and runs itself.

Notice the next time a silence passes without either of you reaching for a phone. Tell that person something true this week, and make the plan you have both been meaning to make.