Love Quotes in Little Bee (The Other Hand)

This conversation takes place when Charlie catches Sarah and Andrew making love the morning Little Bee is released from the detention center, after she calls Andrew on the phone. Charlie is only four, but he intuits that his parents' lovemaking is to try to make Andrew, who is severely depressed, feel better. Sarah describes it as a form of necessary maintenance, something she does to keep her household running smoothly. Not too sexy, but sometimes love, or trying to love, just isn't, even when sex is involved.

This is what Little Bee hears Sarah tell Andrew on the beach in Nigeria, where Andrew and Sarah are running from Sarah's affair. Notice that Sarah says she doesn't love Lawrence, but she doesn't say that she plans on giving up the guy. Whatever the case, she doesn't give up Lawrence, and seems to be in some kind of love with him.

Is Lawrence's statement manipulative, loving, both, or something else entirely? For that matter, does he go to Sarah after the funeral because he wants to support her, or because he wants to prey on her right when she's vulnerable? Because Lawrence is such an ambiguous character, it's hard to pin down most of his motivations. He also seems really sneaky.