#you know who sam and alice make me think about? two birds on a wire the song

[somuchbetterthanthat]

(Insert disclaimer here that I'm really not trying to judge or decide if there is "one person obviously wrong" in this interaction, because i'm here to enjoy the MESSINESS and the ANGST of humanity, i'm eating the delicious food and drama provided to me)

The thing is, on the one hand, Sam is completely within his right to set that boundary with Alice - not being comfortable talking about his new building relationship with his ex is like, yeah, a very normal thing to be uncomfy about, there is nothing irreasonable about him asking Alice to back off about prying into it, and Alice should be able to respect that;

on the other hand, if they are friends, and they truly seem to be friends (Sam affirms they're friends! And I believe it after the 13 episodes we saw of them!), AND Alice is the one who reached out to help Sam out of a very bad mental (and probably financial, by that point) situation, helping him get a job, then, yeah, the word professional used in that context is NOT the good word to use at all, and obviously Sam realizes that, and obviously that's what really gets to Alice, beyond the new boundary trying to be established.

At the same time, Alice is clearly digging to get more infos and Trying to be the Cool Friend while being somewhat masochistic about it, since by now it's plain to see she does have lingering feelings for Sam, and the way she goes about it is not always nice, so she's hurting both herself and Sam by pushing and pushing about it and not listening to Sam giving them both a out from that.

BUT ALSO, Sam saying "I know you're not happy about me and Celia" means that he knows that she's hurting herself each time she talks about it; means that he KNOWS that she still feels something for him that he doesn't anymore, and that means that this beautiful, warm, sweet, lovable, people-pleaser of a man has been purposefully using those feelings to get her to do something she didn't want to do literally three episodes ago, and with no shame at at all about it.

THE POINT IS. They're so MESSY. They KNOW EACH OTHER SO WELL. They LIKE each other. They're going to have SUCH A BAD FALLOUT ONE DAY AND ITS GOING TO BREAK BOTH THEIR HEARTS (and mine, while i cackle from the pain).

(oh, and yeah: "We dated in uni, I tried to help her after her parents died, then we lost contact" ??? What a summary, Samama. I'm sure NOTHING is hiding behind those lines.)