"AJLT:" Aiden’s borderline begging Carrie to stay; Is Miranda drinking again?

Spoilers below!

At this point, Aiden Shaw’s desperation to make things work with Carrie Bradshaw smells as bad as Adam, the gardener, who refuses to wear deodorant. Where we once tolerated Aiden, we are now grossly repulsed by his surprise pop-ups to visit Carrie at “their” NYC home. It’s no longer romantic, and it seems like Aiden is manipulating Carrie to stay in this long-distance relationship when he knows she has better options (literally downstairs).

“This is a nice surprise,” Carrie said when Aiden decided to bring up his luggage packed for a longer-than-usual stay, and we disagree. Now that Wyatt dumped his dad and wants to stay with Aiden’s ex-wife Kathy, full-time – here comes Aiden crawling back to Carrie for comfort (and sexy time). Quite frankly, he’s borderline begging for Carrie’s attention and blocking every chance she can get to her first draft editing session with Duncan.

“Why do you need notes? You’re perfect,” Aiden said to Carrie when she told him she had a meeting set with Duncan to go over book drafts.

The good news is Carrie’s friends are still loyal and dodge every not-so-subtle question Aiden has about the nature of Carrie’s relationship with “Dunkin Donuts,” – which, by the way, is a cheesy nickname and very passive aggressive for a man in his 50s.

Lots of sex is happening in the “Sex and the City” spinoff, “And Just Like That,” episode 8, with some more real than others. Lisa Todd Wexley is keeping her office flirting a secret from her husband, but something tells us her surprise morning sex could signal something's up soon. While Lisa admits to Charlotte she’s having wet dreams about her co-worker Marion, Seema is doing the deed in real life with Carrie’s hot gardener.

Seema and Adam, between the sheets, seem to be a good match, but their compatibility (or hygiene) outside of the bedroom could be a bigger issue because Adam swears by natural deodorant. His woo-woo ways are a glaring red flag for Seema, who is a buttoned up, high-value realtor. Plus, his last name is Karma – that alone feels like a sign to run away fast, but we will wait and see how this romance pans out.

Meanwhile, Miranda’s years of being sober may be coming to an end as she’s secretly rummaging through the cabinets for gin. But is Miranda self-sabotaging a good thing? The moment she gets close to a serious relationship with her girlfriend Joy, she seems to slip back into her own habits. Maybe she needs therapy before she finds herself in another failed relationship.

There are a lot of secrets unraveling, and we’ll need champagne (or a mocktail) to get through the rest of this season. “And Just Like That” airs new episodes Thursdays on HBO Max.