When Lucy* met Abigail*, she thought she’d hit the friendship jackpot. “I’d never met someone who made me laugh so much,” she recalls. “Abi was hilarious, well-travelled, and we had so many common interests, from spirituality to theatre. She showered me with compliments; I was flattered by her attention.” Both women had just got out of long-term relationships, and also both worked in IT – though Lucy was significantly more senior than Abi. Within weeks there were joint parties, weekends away, even one Christmas together. For a while, things were great. But after a year of friendship, something changed.
“Abi started to slowly emotionally withdraw from me,” recalls Lucy. “We were in the back of a cab when she told me she wouldn’t be available for Christmas that year, which was odd since we’d been discussing it for months.”
