Some of you know the story of my female friend who no longer wants to talk to or do anything with me on a personal level, but we probably would be doing some collaboration on line in a project.

I have just found out that I will have to see her at a meeting tomorrow... (I was hoping to avoid a face to face contact and work by email with her). I am really dreading the situation. I can't avoid the meeting and I'm really nervous that my feelings will get the best of me. Not sure what to do. It's a very emotional situation for me and I'm afraid I'll break down in front of "the gang" :eek: . You need to understand... I cry at Hallmark commercials... and this woman was the best friend I ever had in my entire life...

Yikes. No chance at all of calling in sick? ;)

How much will you be interacting directly with her at the meeting? If it's not much, you should be able to do a pretty good job of avoiding the trouble altogether... avoid eye contact with her, and be sure to concentrate on the other people in the meeting and on your own notes. You may also want to have a few hand tricks... counting on your fingers, doing patterns, and similar underneath the table to give you something to focus on.

Set yourself up with a way out for the end of the meeting... don't hang around afterwards, even if you have to invent another meeting that you have to go to in order to get out of chatting with others there... that is the biggest risk for getting caught in an awkward situation. Also, don't show up early... get there as close to the actual start of the meeting as possible.

Good luck, and don't worry about it too much... the anticipation is going to be worse than the event.