Hardin Leaves to Drink and Conceals His Whereabouts from Tessa

Hardin Scott’s decision to leave for a drink becomes a breach of trust not simply because he goes out, but because jealousy, heavy drinking, and deliberate concealment combine to exclude Tessa Young from the truth. The episode begins with an overheard name and ends with Carly’s arrival while Tessa is asking where Hardin has been. Between those moments, he chooses to leave a note, return to a familiar bar, and lie about spending the night with Landon Gibson rather than tell Tessa that he stayed at Carly’s house.

The trigger and departure

Earlier, Hardin returns to the apartment and finds Tessa asleep on the couch. He carries her to their bedroom, settles her under the covers, and kisses her forehead. As he is about to leave the room, she murmurs Zed’s name, then says it again while turning onto her stomach. The words are spoken in her sleep, but Hardin treats them as evidence of a waking preference. He imagines that Tessa would reassure him that she loves him and that she and Zed are only friends, yet the possibility of her dreaming about Zed overwhelms those reassurances before he can ask her about it.

Hardin’s reaction is sharpened by a different worry: Landon’s apparent certainty about his future. Set beside that confidence, Hardin sees himself as unsure of Tessa and afraid that he could be pushed out of her life. He also resists the prospect of moving to Seattle, imagining that a life there would be hers rather than his and that she might eventually leave him. These fears are his own projections, not something Tessa has told him in this scene. Instead of testing them through conversation, he writes her a note, leaves it on the dresser, and goes out into the night.

The bar and renewed drinking

Hardin drives toward Canal Street Tavern, although he does not want to return in case Nate and the group are still there. He chooses another nearby bar where he used to drink regularly. His recollection that underage college students are not always asked for identification underscores how accessible drinking is to him; the passage offers no comparable sign that he has paused to consider whether he should drink at all. Tessa’s earlier warning against drinking again comes to mind, but he dismisses it and decides that he needs a drink.

At the bar, the music is low and few people are present. A familiar blonde bartender, Carly, recognizes Hardin and greets him with interest. Their exchange indicates a prior intimate history: she remembers nights they spent together, and he responds by asking her for a drink. The scene thus places his present jealousy beside a connection from his own past. He is troubled by the imagined meaning of Tessa saying Zed’s name, yet returns to a setting associated with his former drinking and encounters someone with whom he has previously been involved.

The night concealed from Tessa

By the following day, Hardin regrets drinking so much and recognizes that he should not have drunk at all. He is with Carly, whose habits and appearance he contrasts unfavorably with Tessa’s, reinforcing how differently he regards the two women. As Carly drives him back toward the bar where he became very drunk the previous night, he repeatedly rereads messages from Tessa. He thinks she is probably worried and sends her an explanation that he fell asleep in his car after drinking too much with Landon.

That message is false. Hardin knows he cannot tell Tessa that he stayed at Carly’s house and anticipates that she will not forgive him or hear him out. He notices that something about the explanation feels wrong, but his thinking is muddled and he sends it anyway. The lie is therefore not an accidental misunderstanding: he recognizes the truth he is withholding, considers the risk of telling it, and chooses a fabricated account instead. When Tessa does not reply, he is left without a way to resolve the deception he has just created.

The concealment breaks down when Tessa asks where he has been all day. As Hardin is about to make another excuse, Carly walks up, addresses him familiarly, and asks whether she can leave. Tessa sees her and immediately asks who she is. Carly’s presence supplies the information Hardin’s text omitted: he was not simply asleep in a car after drinking with Landon. The scene makes disclosure involuntary, arriving through an encounter rather than through Hardin’s decision to be honest.

Consequences within the relationship

In a later argument, Tessa identifies this night as part of a larger problem: Hardin had been drunk and stayed out all night with another woman. Her complaint is not confined to the lie. She says that he puts his friends, parties, and future ahead of her, does not let her make decisions about their shared future, and dismissed her wish for eventual marriage as though she were being unreasonable. For Tessa, the drinking episode belongs to a pattern in which Hardin’s choices take priority while her need for security and consideration goes unanswered.

The episode also shows how differently the two respond to uncertainty. Hardin interprets Tessa’s sleeping words as a threat to the relationship, but he does not ask her to explain them before leaving. Tessa, by contrast, later tries to name what is troubling her: the dishonesty, the lack of consideration, and the fear that she does not come first. Elsewhere, she asks him to open up about his feelings while admitting that she herself has been confused and has failed to communicate clearly. Their difficulty is not an absence of feeling; it is that fear and hurt repeatedly overtake the conversation needed to understand one another.

Significance

The episode links jealousy to avoidance rather than to resolution. Hardin’s departure follows a moment of care, when he carries Tessa to bed, but that tenderness does not prevent him from treating an uncertain sign as confirmation of his fears. He leaves without discussion, drinks despite remembering Tessa’s warning, and hides where he spent the night. Each choice makes the next conversation harder: the original worry about Zed gives way to a concrete breach of trust involving Carly and a lie about Landon.

The contrast between the note left on the dresser and the false text sent the next day is especially telling. The note marks Hardin’s departure but does not, in the available account, disclose its destination; the later message supplies an explanation designed to conceal the night. Meanwhile, Tessa’s questions and eventual confrontation show that the hidden information does not stay private. The action’s consequence is not only that she discovers Carly’s presence, but that the couple’s conflict expands from Hardin’s jealousy to the more consequential questions of honesty, priority, and whether Tessa can feel secure in a relationship where she is not included in decisions or told the truth.