You meet a stranger and you introduce yourself. You exchange a few questions and share a few things about yourself. Before you know it, you are conversing with the stranger as if you are both long lost friends. You both promise to get back to one another and the relationship grows from there.

You have a friend whom you have been conversing and sharing things about yourself for a period of time. Then, due to some extenuating circumstances, you don't get to meet that often or get in touch as often as you did. After a period of time, the getting back together feels awkward as you both seem to have no topic of conversation. It's like meeting a stranger.

How sad it is when it is the latter. When a friendship which has been growing suddenly becomes awkward due to the effluxion of time not being together.