“I always do”

“I always do” is Hardin Scott’s compact assurance that he finds Tessa Young when she hides or pulls away. The phrase gains force from its immediate confirmation in Hardin’s point of view: finding her is a repeated behavior, but one entangled with jealousy and anger rather than simple reassurance.

The phrase at the wall

Tessa recalls that she hid for a little while, but Hardin found her. His answer, “I always do,” interrupts the conversation and startles her as she sits on a stone wall with Zed. She grips Zed’s jacket to steady herself, making Hardin’s arrival part of a scene already marked by her closeness to someone else and his sudden reappearance.

The exchange gives the phrase a literal meaning before it acquires a more complicated one. Hardin has located Tessa after she withdrew, and his words present this as something he reliably does. The certainty is brief and intimate, but the circumstances keep it from being an uncomplicated declaration of care: she had hidden, he had sought her, and she is with Zed when he finds her.

Hardin’s confirmation

The next chapter shifts to Hardin’s narration, where he confirms that his words are true: he does always find her. He also explains the recurring pattern in terms of what he finds her doing, including spending time with Trevor or Zed, which drives him mad. At the wall, he is angry to discover Tessa and Zed talking about her hiding from him, and he approaches across the frozen grass.

That change of viewpoint sharpens the phrase’s double meaning. From Tessa’s side, it arrives as a startling interruption; from Hardin’s, it belongs to a pattern of searching shaped by jealousy. The assurance promises persistence, but Hardin’s own account connects that persistence to anger over Tessa’s independent relationships.

Persistence and autonomy

Elsewhere, their arguments show why being found does not resolve what separates them. Tessa asks Hardin to open up and tell her how he feels, while he counters that she has not clearly expressed her own feelings. She admits her confusion about their relationship and his betrayal. Their exchange makes the difficulty more than physical separation: each wants to know where the other stands, yet both struggle to communicate plainly.

During a confrontation involving Tessa’s mother, Tessa stays behind Hardin and takes hold of his forearm, but then asserts that she is an adult and can choose to stay. The scene places protection and self-determination beside one another. Hardin’s assurance that he finds Tessa can suggest that he will not let the connection lapse; it cannot, by itself, settle who gets to decide where she goes or what she chooses.

Later echoes in conflict

In a later dispute, Hardin drives Tessa away from Zed’s house and locks the car doors. She objects to being kept in the car and to having been made to leave. Once she explains the larger grievance, she says that Hardin does not treat her as a priority, excludes her from decisions about her future, and dismissed her concerns about marriage and security. The scene gives concrete weight to the difference between his insistence on remaining close and her demand to be heard as an equal.

That tension returns when Hardin tells Tessa she must have no contact with Zed, including texts or visits to the science building, and says he will fight him if she does not agree. Tessa challenges his right to dictate whom she can speak to and agrees to stay away only in exchange for him not fighting. These later conflicts do not repeat the phrase, but they illuminate its significance: Hardin’s determination to find Tessa is part of a relationship in which attachment repeatedly collides with her autonomy.