Responses
You're right, Ian is being deliberately contradictory here. What's interesting is that he's fully aware Michele has every reason to be upset, yet he keeps pushing because he's hoping to provoke a particular reaction from him. It's less about the flowers themselves and more about Ian's expectations of Michele and his own deeply rooted distrust. It doesn't make his behaviour fair...but there's a lot more going on beneath the surface than it initially seems (￣∇￣")
Ian keeps saying he and the servant are the same person but now he's changing his tune over some damn flowers??? I like him but he can shove his dried-up flowers up his ass