A matter of courtesy

I have a friend. Let's call her Kelly.

Kelly is very sociable and she is very good at networking. I got to know her through my housemate. Through the years, I can say, we became pretty good friends.

There is one thing that I observed about Kelly that I found rather irritating though. My housemate and I were out with some new-found friends and Kelly met us a little later with another friend. After settling down and ordering food, Kelly proceeded to make small talk with new-found friend and I (we were actually already in the midst of having a conversation).

Kelly asks, we answer. It is supposed to be a two-way interaction. Halfway through answering her though, Kelly's eye contact drifted away towards her friend and we were just left hanging, halfway done with our conversation. She started to listen to her friend's woes.

I do understand that her friend is in a bit of a rut and needs to let it all out, but I think the onus was on Kelly to carry out one conversation at a time instead of leaving the conversation halfway. I don't think she realises it but what she did was rude.

I was stuck in mid-sentence, eyes trying to make contact with her while she started talking to her friend. New-found friend sess this and politely continues the conversation with me.

I don't think Kelly knows what is wrong. According to my housemate, she sees this as multi-tasking. I guess I am stickler for good manners and just don't think it is right to behave like that. I believe in looking into people's eyes when talking to them to show that you are listening and that you are sincere about making that connection.