I think she’s trying to convince herself she doesn’t want/need James around because he’s made it so clear he wants to pursue his own thing still.
That kind of distance (both geographical, but also independence) truly does work for some people, but I just don’t buy that it’s what Emily truly wants.
She is incredibly close with her family and a partner at this stage, years on in a relationship, is an extension of that whether she likes to admit it or not.
She can’t go a matter of weeks without seeing her family and is now moving in with them for comfort and support, yet we’re truly meant to buy she’s happy with the current set up with James? It just doesn’t make sense.
I’d have so much respect if she actually came out and said ‘yeah, it sucks theres this gap between us - we’re working on hopefully being able to move closer together soon but for now, we’re working with what we’ve got, it sucks, but we love each other enough to stick at it.’ Instead, it just seems like she’s acting entirely indifferently so when the potential break up happens, she can pretend she wasn’t that fussed.