Four's company, six is a crowd?

Bit of an odd one this.

Hubby and I were invited out by someone. There were 6 of us, but have you ever had a feeling that you weren't part of the original plans? That one couple had asked the second couple and it was the second couple that invited us. And that we might actually have been intruding as far as the first couple were concerned.

It wasn't as though anything was said and it could just have been paranoia so I stuck with it and we had a great night, but it saddens me slightly as I have a great deal of respect for everyone concerned and would love to have more nights out like that.

Perhaps I just have to accept not everyone feels the same.

Offering a helping hand.

I went to see Best Friend today.  She's been down lately.  I've sent a couple of texts and emails and had no reply.  I finally sent her a message through facebook.  She finally replied.  If it hadn't been for that I'd have sworn she was ignoring me.

Bare in mind that she works in the same building as me - I've not seen her since the start of May.

Clearly she's got her own problems.  These have been largely caused by her ex-husband but now she has an ex-boyfriend too.  Work is busy at the moment for her as well.  But this is Best Friend and I'm not sure that those are good enough excuses for cancelling lunch with me twice and not even mailing to let me know or contacting me in 3-4 weeks.

It hurts and my paranoia kicks in.

But these days I handle this sort of thing differently.  I revert to my NLP knowledge and accept that she's using a different map of the world than I am and has different priorities.  So my paranoia turns to concern about her mental health and that maybe she's heading for another bout of depression.  I'd like to reach out a hand and help but its hard to do when she won't let me in.