The original cause for the delay is I lost someone close to me. There is a public Patreon post from earlier in the month about it, but the details are vague for privacy reasons.
--
"But wait! I shouldn't jump to conclusions! Maybe it's a bit of fun they're having where they do meet up later, but pretend to be strangers! And then they, uh..."
"Actually, I don't want to think about THAT, either."