Little Brother and the Love Story

I personally found the love story around Little Brother a little out of place. It is almost as if the story was written, and seemed lacking, so the author tacked it on to make it have some more weight.
Specifically, I felt like the author somewhat failed in his attempt to write a love scene.

There are two books I have read on writing, one being "How to read literature like a professor" by Thomas Foster. In it, he dives into sex scenes and he made a memorable point. Try writing a steamy sex scene sometime, really get into it. While you write it, it may seem good. It might seem hot and amazing. But come back to it a day later.... and it will 9 times out of 10 just be plain awkward.
His point was that when something was straight up sex in literature, it always means something else (like how the sex in 1984 was a form of rebelling against the government) but if the author wants to symbolize sex itself, it is best to go about it indirectly, as most novels and old movies did. (think of the famous "train going into a tunnel" scene from that old movie)

To me, Little Brother's sex didn't seem to be anything symbolic, but just awkward.