Lawrence and the hidden theme of Mike's birthday party.

[dreadedcandiru2]

Most people who really think about the long and needless fallow period in which Mike witlessly assumes that Martha and Lawrence were a thing tend to focus on how big an idiot Mike is. You'd have to be a passive twerp like him to do what he did and just let her slip through his fingers without a fight. You'd have to be a moron who doesn't understand how people behave to dismiss sight unseen the possibility that she was simply trying to make him jealous. You'd also have to be blind and mentally defective not to see that the birthday is another example of an old, old problem: Lawrence is a really crappy friend who only hangs out with Michael because their moms do.

What Mike loses sight of owing to having glaucoma of the mind's eye is that it takes two people to stage an Operation Jealousy. Not only does Martha have to find a plausible target for the hoped-for "Let's you and me fight" thing she was clearly going for but the sap has to be willing. If Lawrence had any loyalty to his alleged best friend, Martha would simply have to find another jerk to play Bluto to Mike's Popeye.