In BG3, it is officially considered that the player in Act 1 and the beginning of Act 2 "is not in a relationship, but just having fun with no strings attached", and the uninformed player, thinking they already have a romance, doesn't understand why the game doesn't take this into account, why these relationships look like the characters are hiding them, inventing headcanons to explain to themselves the reason for this need to hide relationships. It's pretty funny.
From what I have read, the stage is called "flirting" which describes it pretty well for most of the characters. Apart from Astarion and Lae'zel, all of the main companions treat this stage as a getting-to-know-you stage and are quite serious about their affections. Astarion and Lae'zel on the other hand are very obvious about just wanting fun, Lae'zel tells you outright and in Astarion's case they went out of their way to indicate that he's insincere when he's buttering the player character up. I thought it was handled quite well that, while the player character is manipulated, the player is not.
I also wouldn't say that in any stage anyone is hiding a relationship, apart from looking for privacy for certain things, everyone seems to be well informed about what's up, it's just not a topic that is discussed with the group.
Originally Posted by Piff
I bet they only got away with that line because no one had to voice it. There are some truly awful lines that our player character can say that have derailed my entire thought process in the middle of a conversation.
Some of the player dialogue lines are ... something.
