The passionate friendships as a life-stage thing reminded me of Edward Prime-Stevenson and the romantic friend of his youth, who eventually did the expected thing and got married, leaving EPS to pine, which certainly would make any future friendship awkward. (Admittedly I only know EPS from Imre but that ABSOLUTELY gave me the idea of him as a person who would sit at his friend's new fireside gazing at him fixedly while the friend and his wife awkwardly offer muffins.)