I can feel when I am no longer arriving warmly, only dutifully

Dear Delyara, That’s how I know a friendship is in trouble now. Not a fight. Not a betrayal. A change in how my own body enters it. When warmth becomes effort, when replying feels like maintaining a structure rather than moving toward a person, when I start answering from loyalty instead of desire, I know something important has thinned. I hate naming that because it makes the loss feel more official. But avoiding it only makes me lonelier inside the connection. Duty has its place. I just don’t think it should be the main emotional fuel of friendship.