Our steps are [tentative] as we try to feel out our way.

We're trying to be [friend]s and neither of us quite know how.

It isn't that we don't like each other, goodness knows, that's not a [problem].

It isn't that we don't have things to [talk] about. We do.

It's that, a very short [time] ago, we were so much more than friends. And it isn't the [feelings] that have changed, it's our lives.

We have to find a [balance]. We have to find [expectation]s that are [realistic], to discover how much we can tell each other about our new lives before the information starts to [hurt]. Find out how much support it is [reasonable] to give, or to ask. Decide where we [draw the line] when we talk about feelings -- how we can convey 'I love you' without actually saying it.

It's [strain]ed. It's [awkward].

We struggle for words, where we used to [struggle] to stop talking.

It's tempting to not even [try], just to let it [fade away]. But... we are used to each other, part of each other, [integral]. Our conversations, the presence of the other has become ... needful. Without it, there is a hole.

So, we are trying to part without parting, to keep closeness, but at a [distance]. We are trying to be friends.

Trying to be friends (idea)