Some updates. Mid-day Sunday, W emailed me to say that she was too busy and tired to stop by the house. I just went about my day, running errands. About two hours later she emailed me saying when someone emails you it is expected that you respond. (I really wanted to be snarky. I have long lost count of the number of emails from me she has ignored.) I replied that I was busy running errands and that I intended to email her later. When I was done, I did reply to her email. Then she didn’t respond for hours. I sent another email saying simply, “What you said.” She told me to "chill," that she had been napping. She suggested we might go out for lunch one day this week. After a few more email exchanges, we settled on having lunch Thursday.
Monday we did not have much contact. I felt like she was avoiding eye contact. She did stop by my office briefly to tell me she bought a large container of flavored creamer for coffee and to “drink up.”
Tuesday she stopped by my office to let me know big things were happening at work. That she had an important meeting. I told her that I hoped it went well I would think positive thoughts for her. When I finished work early, I left. She sent me a rather long email that evening about how she had looked for me. How she wanted my opinion on something. She told me how the meeting had not gone as she had hoped. I replied that she could always email me anything she wanted me to look over. I empathized with her disappointment about work. She later emailed me reminding me to do something. I told her it was already taken care of.
Today, she dropped by to show me some of her work and to share my opinion. I was supportive, but made some suggestions on how to improve it. She later stopped by to share the changes she made in response to the feedback she had received. I looked everything over and she seemed satisfied. In the afternoon, she again dropped by to tell me how things went for her and she had some positive observations. The conversation then changed to events at work and her concerns for things that had developed in the last few days. I expressed understanding and empathized. I shared my hope that things were not as bleak as they seemed.
