There is this couple of friends with which I think I and my partner have been in quite good relations over the years:
- they helped us moving
- we had their toddler at home while they were going to a party to enjoy some alone time
- we had quite often dinner/lunch together (more often at our place than at their, though, about 5:1 ratio)
- we sometimes baked cookies for their child, who loves them
They told us they are going to move to another city, and invited us for dinner before their move. The first time we agreed on the date (3-4 weeks in advance), but they never told us the time. When we casually met them after the supposed day, they mentioned they forgot about the dinner and renewed the invitation, stating "we must have dinner together, since we are not going to meet any more" (again 3-4 weeks before the date). Also this time they "forgot" to tell us the time for the dinner and there was no dinner. Then they relocated. We had some chat about the relocation but they never mentioned the missed dinner.
That "we are not going to meet any more" sounded strange to my hear. Yes, they are moving to another city, but it is less than 1 hour driving from where we live and their parents still live here, so it's not like they are moving to the other side of the globe.
How can I check if they are really seeking to shut down the friendship or were simply overwhelmed with relocation preparation and forgot following their agenda?
Background info: they are the kind of people overly obsessed with agenda and scheduling, at least that's what we saw during our friendship. That's why we had to plan with large advance. We felt awkward in reminding about the dinner both times, we didn't want to sound pushy as we know that relocation time is not really a stress free time.