I'm prolly overthinking this, but in retrospect, it feels like this was sort of foreshadowing the ending of season 2. Crowley hesitantly trying to close the distance between them, and Aziraphale being so caught up in rules and his own head to consider whether what he's doing is actually the best thing or, for that matter, what he even wants to do.
"watch you eat cake" was such a thing to say. He was really stripping bare right there, that could mean absolutely nothing platonic. The "there is no platonic explanation for this" meme is pretty annoying but here it's actually very apt. You would not say that to a good chum.
I do think it's weird in the audio that Aziraphale first suggests Crowley goes out, and then tells him he can't encourage him to do so later, when Crowley was slightly convinced.
Then why did he bring it up?? Maybe he wanted to see Crowley at first but then realised he really shouldn't be telling crowley to break the rules.
when your proposal to visit your hereditary enemy/best friend/the person you want to spend the rest of your life with, provided they just say yes, gets rejected, it’s obligatory to sleep through pride month as well
It always gets me when he says he's setting his alarm clock for June (/July.) I remember being so certain it would all be over in time for my brother's planned August wedding. We were all so wrong. So so wrong.
Maybe Aziraphale relented after Crowley woke back up in July. Maybe that's how they both "got so much use out of" the bookshop