#hotation

Absolute basura. Imagine being in a relationship with someone for years, seeing him or her essentially take up air and space in your life and failing at doing more than maintaining his or her mess, only for aforementioned bae to bounce once you’ve made a mistake you are more than determined to make right? 

I’m not saying Issa wasn’t wrong. She definitely was not right when stepping out with Daniel. Instead of making her frustrations clear with Lawrence, she definitely decided to bungee jump into the world of uncertainty, determined to get more out of living than she was at the moment. But when the smoke cleared, Lawrence was faced with the very real dilemma of questioning his girlfriend’s (in)fidelity. And we know how that went down.

They hadn’t had a sit-down conversation since. Nothing more than simple requests for mail, an extremely brief revenge romp on the bouch (and yes, I said bouch), and some social media stalking. Lawrence wrestled off and on with the demise of his relationship with Issa throughout the season, only caring enough to pump the brakes after being cursed to hell by Tasha and getting played by the black peen-lusted chicks after his trip to the supermarket. Only in his failure to secure another thing does Lawrence think about Issa---oh, that and when he comes across a photo of her and Daniel with their undeniable chemistry--and when he does, he is quick to play victim. Re: bar conversation with Derek. 

Issa did the opposite. After briefly attempting to win her man back, she decides to roll with it and do her. Hotation in effect, then it wasn’t. Her line-up dried up. Daniel came and blinded her (all pun intended). Your girl was down. Now, on top of trying to take control of her mess, old bae shows up to dinner with HIS new bae, unannounced, shaped up, and petty on full? 

He played himself. They aren’t together, so people may disagree here, but the fact that he wasn’t brave enough to come alone spoke volumes about where he stands regarding Issa. If he was truly over her, where is the harm in supporting your boy without having people question the presence of the girl on your arm? And his girl, this cool chick from work who looks at him and likes him enough to feel uncomfortable at the same table as the woman who had “broken” his heart, is being pulled into a messy situation that Lawrence isn’t even gangsta enough to clean up and end on his own. How many more casualties will fall victim to Lawrence and Issa? 

Can we talk about how men carry the weight of one incident in which they are betrayed and cling to it for dear life? Why is Issa a hoe as a result of one incident, one night? Why does Lawrence cling to that night like he clings to the arm of his new girl? Why is it so important for him to know if she and Daniel were a thing while they were together if they aren’t anymore? What difference would it make? Lawrence wants his ego stroked, and he doesn’t hesitate to use others to get the feeling he lost when he found out someone else made Issa feel what he couldn’t. It wasn’t enough that she was his clean-up woman. She needed to be his everything when he needed it most, even at her own expense, and he couldn’t take it when she wasn’t. How many of us have found ourselves in similar situations?

We’ve all been Issa at some point, holding on to dead weight. Her slip-up came when she decided to try and move on without acknowledging how she hurt her partner and forgiving herself. She should have ended it before she went out and brought someone else into what they had, but she hadn’t and that was that. Why are we expected to wear the A? Yes, she did have sex outside of her relationship, but is she supposed to take that L forever? 

Men are quick to label others, but when it comes time to look in the mirror, their memory and vision suddenly fails them. When she took shots at Lawrence’s outdated app, his dream project, and called him out on his depression, my heart stopped. No lies there. Him calling her a hoe was his truth too, in all fairness, In that moment outside of the restaurant and in the real world, where hotations and work baes didn’t exist, Issa and Lawrence were mirrors.