Chris Duffy

real, true, deep heartbreak when they lose a friend, whether that's someone passing away or whether that's a friendship falling apart.

And yet, once again, there's not really a structure for friend loss the same way that there is a structure for a breakup with a romantic partner or for the loss of a spouse.

Can you talk to us about what you can do if you're in that situation where you lose someone who's really important, but you feel like other people just don't get it?

When you lose a friend because it's more on the breakup or the relationship part rather than that they've died or passed away, and that's the reason for losing them.

When you lose a friend, there's this weird gray area where it's like they could float back in, right?

Like they could float back in and maybe it will just be like it was because we don't have as clear lines.

And I think in some ways that can make it harder because you're like, am I grieving something that will...

return before I'm even done grieving?

Or is it gone forever?

And it's so much harder to know, I think, than when you are in a romantic breakup.

OK, Reina, in a world where it feels like there is an increasingly wide social and political and ideological divide, do you have any advice for people to navigate friendships where maybe the day to day feels totally fine, but there's also this big weight of the broader political or ideological differences that two people might have?

If you could give people three tips or actions that they should do to nurture and strengthen their friendships and non-romantic relationships, what would you tell them to do?

I never thought about it that way.

I think...

Yeah, you just really shifted something for me in the idea of like, it's really fun to be scheming as adults.

Like we need that more scheming.

I need more scheming in my life.

I think that's right.

Okay, so the one thing I wanted to ask you about is we haven't really talked at all about the way that attraction or like a sexual relationship

Or even the possibility of a sexual relationship can sometimes change the tenor of a friendship.