Adam Sally Y&R
Credit: Howard Wise/JPI

It’s about to be a blue Christmas for fans of Sally and Adam.

Young & Restless’ Sally succumbed to her feelings for Adam and the pair made love in her hotel suite, but what came after left fans either scratching their heads, rolling their eyes, or fuming.

There were some viewers drawn into the angst of Sally and Adam’s latest goodbye — it was hard not to be, if we’re being honest — but the explanation for their latest parting of the ways felt hella contrived.

Young & Restless pulled off an almost Bold & Beautiful-esque feat of doublespeak as Sally spent several scenes giving murky reasons why she and Adam could no longer be an item despite being deeply in love and having just made love to one another.

As they lounged in the afterglow, Adam stated the obvious: “We feel something powerful and meaningful for one another.” Sally wholeheartedly agreed and added, “That’s why this happened… but that’s also why it won’t happen again.” Huh?!?

Sally then told Adam that, however misguided, his unselfish act of letting her go to secure her the future she deserved, proved just how amazing a partner he can be. Adam, who has done more soul-bearing than we’ve perhaps ever seen in this situation, told Sally he wanted to be her partner. What followed was more scripted contortions as to why he’s an amazing man and Sally loves him profoundly, but “it’s time for us to move on.”

Only on a soap would you have two people this much in love declare that they cannot be together and accept that they “have to let each other go so we can find our true happiness.”

No one could blame Sally for being skittish about putting all her eggs in Adam’s basket again, but the reality is that it’s pretty hard to walk away from feelings like that even if she truly believes “this was all they were meant to have.” It just feels faintly ridiculous and more than a little unbelievable. And if you see it that way, well, we’ve got bad news — it’s only going to get worse.

As we all know, Nick arrived just in time to see Adam leaving, Sally in tears, and to take in the unmade bed, which left no doubt as to what had transpired in the hotel suite.

While one might think that would be the end of “Nally”, one would be wrong.

As previewed in SOD, Sally will manage to convince Nick to listen to her explanation and will declare that she definitely wants to be with him.

Nick, who came to the hotel fresh off of his father’s dire warnings about getting mixed up with the Spectra woman, will not inform Sally that she’s in love with Adam, say he’s done, and walk away, but will instead take some time to think it all over.

If our sneak peek holiday photos are anything to go by, we know exactly what Nick’s decision will be.

It’s totally unsurprising that Nick would sign on to go another round with the woman he knows damn well is in love with his brother. For one thing, he has a well-known penchant for defying his father. He also can’t resist indulging his sibling rivalry with Adam and has an uncanny ability to overlook red flags in order to justify having what it is he wants in the moment.

Now, this may be akin to torture for Sally and Adam fans, but the desire on the part of the writers to milk this triangle for all the daytime drama possible, isn’t unexpected. And as much as we know Sally’s reasons for dumping Adam after sex were contrived so as to send the character back to Nick, that heartbreaking goodbye was a soap staple.

Did you find the latest Sally and Adam “break up” sad but believable? Ridiculous and unrealistic? Infuriating? Perhaps all of the above? Let us know in the comment section below.

Take a look back over Adam and Sally’s love story in the gallery below.