New York City, where Tessa considers moving

New York City, where Tessa considers moving, is a prospective home that gathers several needs at once: distance from a painful relationship, room to build an independent future, and the possibility of remaining close to Landon. At first, Tessa treats the move as an option she has not yet chosen; later, she commits to leaving, with plans for college, work, and a longer stay. The city is therefore not simply a new setting, but the place where her desire to make decisions for herself becomes concrete, without making grief or attachment disappear.

A city imagined from a distance

Tessa first considers New York City while living through the aftermath of her father’s death. Landon tells her that Ken has heard her father is adjusting in rehab, though the first days will be the worst, and Tessa asks when she might be able to visit him. In that conversation, she holds her new phone against her chest as Landon cautiously asks whether she has thought about moving. Her attention remains divided: she wants to hold on to her recently reconnected father and to Landon, even while the possibility of a distant move begins to offer a future beyond immediate loss.

Her initial answer is not a firm decision. Tessa says she is leaning toward New York City but needs more time, and Landon responds that they would leave in about three weeks, at the end of the semester. The interval matters: the move is not yet an accomplished fact, but a choice she is beginning to imagine alongside someone who will make the journey with her. She waits to decide until she can speak in person with Kimberly and Christian, who are due to return from London. The passage of only a couple of days feels much longer to her, showing how the city’s future-facing promise exists alongside a present distorted by grief.

From possibility to a self-directed plan

When Tessa later resolves to go, she gives the decision practical boundaries. She plans to forgo summer-semester classes so she can get to know the city that will be her home for at least a few years. She intends to remain there until graduating rather than transfer colleges again, because another transfer would look bad on her transcripts. The commitment is both an educational plan and an effort to establish continuity after upheaval. She also anticipates that her father will have completed rehab by the time she is settled and hopes he might visit her and Landon, if that proves possible.

The decision is deliberately framed as hers to make. Tessa expects that her mother will not be pleased, but insists that the move is not her mother’s choice. For the first time in this sequence, she describes making decisions based solely on her own needs and future. This assertion does not mean that she is free from fear: she panics over the preparations and the scale of relocating across the country. Instead, independence appears through the work of acting while uncertain, rather than waiting until uncertainty has vanished.

Preparation, work, and a network of help

The prospective move quickly becomes a collaborative undertaking. Landon helps Tessa sort out the details, and over two days they apply for grant after grant. Ken writes and sends a recommendation letter; Karen helps her search online for part-time work. Sophia, who has lived in the city for five years and still has not seen all of it, visits daily with suggestions about places to go and warnings about the challenges of living in a very large city. She also offers to speak with her own boss about a hostess job at the restaurant where she will be working.

A further proposal comes from Ken, Karen, and Landon: Tessa could transfer to the new Vance Publishing branch expected to open within the next few months. Their suggestion addresses the gap between the cost of living in the city without income and the difficulty of finding a paid internship before finishing college. Tessa has not yet spoken with Kimberly about her move; Kimberly and Christian have only recently returned from London, and contact so far has consisted of occasional texts and a promise to call once things settle down. These practical details show that the imagined fresh start depends on relationships and resources, not on a clean break from other people.

Relationships and the meaning of departure

New York City becomes more emotionally immediate through Tessa’s conversations with people who might accompany or welcome her there. In Seattle, after becoming distracted by thoughts of Hardin Scott and burning dough in the oven, she tells Sophia and Karen that she is ready to leave. Karen offers to show her around because she lives near NYU, reasoning that having someone familiar matters in a large city. Tessa is grateful: Landon will be there too, but she expects that he will be as lost as she is. Karen and Sophia then raise their glasses to the move and to new adventures, turning an anxious plan into a small, shared act of encouragement.

That encouragement sits beside an unresolved attachment. Tessa recalls Hardin Scott’s confidence that she will forgive him, a belief that has previously helped keep her plans and dignity subordinate to their relationship. Remembering his words makes the prospect of moving across the country feel less frightening, not because the hurt has been repaired, but because it clarifies what she does not want to keep repeating. She also acknowledges that she could not persuade him to move to Seattle for her and assumes he would reject New York City as well. The city’s significance lies partly in this contrast: it is a destination chosen without waiting for Hardin Scott to choose it with her.

Tessa explains the plan to Kimberly as a move with Landon, who is going to NYU. She intends to spend the summer there and hopes to get into the university in the fall. Kimberly is surprised, and Tessa concedes that the change is enormous; being near Landon makes the move seem sensible, but her stated need to get away is also central. Later, when Landon checks whether she has changed her mind before he gives Ken the flight arrangements, Tessa confirms that she is still coming. She plans to go to Seattle first to say goodbye to Kimberly and mentions an appointment she is not ready to face. Her embrace of Landon follows his reassurance that she need not leave if she wants to stay. The decision is firm, but the scene preserves its emotional cost and the care with which Landon gives her room to reconsider.

A future, not an escape completed

The city’s role remains prospective in these passages: Tessa makes plans to go, to study, find work, and stay through graduation, while the evidence here does not establish the eventual outcome of every application or job offer. Even so, the shift from considering the move to confirming that she is coming marks a meaningful change. New York City offers a structure for independence—college, grants, employment possibilities, and a home shared in prospect with Landon—rather than a guarantee that pain will end at the state line.

That distinction is essential to the move’s narrative force. Tessa imagines the city as a place to get away from Seattle and Hardin Scott, but she does not mistake relocation for a cure: grief over her father, concern for his recovery, and uncertainty about her own next steps travel with the plan. The city becomes a test of whether she can organize her future around her needs while still accepting support from others. Its promise is not isolation, but a different balance between attachment and self-direction.