I have an old friend who messages me to reconnect every now and then, every single time, flakes the day of with some flimsy excuse. This has happened six or seven times now. We will make a plan for this or that Saturday, the day will arrive, I will message to get an ETA and they reply saying they have COVID, swamped with work, injured their back etc. etc. They never reach out to me to cancel, it is only once the actual day comes and we are an hour or so out from the event that they bail.

At first I would feel disappointed and put effort into rescheduling, now I just ignore them or make 'plans' without expecting them to happen. I've lost all interest in this friend, for obvious reasons, and yet they still chase me up and repeat the same pattern of behaviour time and time again. I only wonder what *they* think is going on. Don't they see the string of cancelled plans between us and feel embarrassed?