He broke up with Alice because she didn't know how to take some things seriously. She didn't know when to turn off the jokes. She made one too many jokes about something that wasn't funny and Sam got sick of it.
Do you ever wonder if Alice sat alone in her flat, wishing she was a different person so that she could be what Sam wanted?
And now he needs a job and she wants him back in her life. As a coworker, as a friend, anything. She'll take anything. She misses him.
She's learned her lesson this time. And now every time Sam tells Alice to "turn it off" she does so without any hesitation. She shuts right the hell up. She doesn't do that with any other person in the office. But for Sam, she'll try and be what he wants her to be.
And he goes and gets a crush on his coworker. Not Alice, though. Never Alice. No, he gets a crush on the beautiful, emotionally available girl that he has no past with and all the promises of a future. And she has to watch him bounce around her in a twitter pated mess, trying and failing to flirt and she remember what it was like when he was flirting with her. She remember that sweet, earnest care he gave her and how he too once offered her his good teas.
Maybe it wasn't enough just to be coworkers, to be friends. But it's too late now.
And now he comes back from his date, drunk and happy and looking like he's just a few more dates from getting lucky. She probably doesn't make awkward jokes because she doesn't know how to be real and authentic. Celia's probably perfect for Sam, the way Alice never was.
And now all Alice has left are the jokes, so she makes them and she hopes they hide everything.
They don't. Of course they don't.
"Be professional."
And now she's standing there. The ex girlfriend who's not over her old flame and everyone in the office knows it. She's standing there alone and Sam has robbed her of all the jokes.
ok but Alice "sober up & stop trying to make an impact" Dyer would get along well with Cecil "if you see something say nothing & drink to forget" Gershwin Palmer