Why Elly doesn't jog with Anne any more....
Now, as you will recall, the oldest strips had Elly and Anne as jogging partners while from now on, Elly jogs exclusively with Connie as part of the process of culling the cast herd. For good or ill, Lynn appears to believe that no matter how many characters she might have at any given point, she has too many of them so it makes sense to her to have Elly have only one friend. The problem, of course, is that just as Lynn likes to lie to make herself look like a victim, Elly is never really honest about any motive that might make her look like a self-serving jerk.
This means that as far as Anne knows, her former friend actually did start to keep her distance because she felt awkward about the Steve situation despite Elly only absenting herself form their friendship after Anne was no longer available to dump April on. She also doesn't realize that there's something Connie can offer than she cannot: confirmation of Elly's deluded belief that she's fat and old and that her kids are out to destroy her.
This means that as far as Anne knows, her former friend actually did start to keep her distance because she felt awkward about the Steve situation despite Elly only absenting herself form their friendship after Anne was no longer available to dump April on. She also doesn't realize that there's something Connie can offer than she cannot: confirmation of Elly's deluded belief that she's fat and old and that her kids are out to destroy her.