It's good to let the discussion take a breather once in a while... that's assuming there IS a discussion. I agree with Jayce here, you have to keep the questions coming and open the lines of communication SOME HOW.
You would think with the emails he would open up at least a little bit. That is actually how I got my wife to open up over a year ago now. We had been locked in our defensive mode for so long I never could get what I wanted to say across. So I started with the emails, then the talks came later.
