Fertility, Infertility, and Parenthood

Fertility, Infertility, and Parenthood form a conflict between bodily uncertainty, Tessa’s emerging feelings about having children, and Hardin’s insistence that they will not become parents. A routine effort to obtain contraception turns into an unresolved medical scare; meanwhile, the contrast between Tessa’s private hopes and Hardin’s stated refusal makes parenthood a measure of how far their expectations for a shared future diverge.

Sex, Contraception, and Risk

The issue first surfaces through the couple’s unprotected sex. In a hot-tub exchange, Hardin reproaches Tessa about the possibility of pregnancy, arguing that she could have conceived if he had not remembered. His alarm shifts into suspicion that a baby might disrupt her planned move to Seattle. The exchange reveals how quickly a practical risk becomes entangled with their struggle over the future: pregnancy is not treated as an abstract possibility but as something that could alter Tessa’s plans and intensify the conflict between them.

Hardin later tells Tessa to get birth control after she puts a handful of plugs in the car’s glove compartment. He admits to himself that he has been careless and that sex without a condom has changed how he thinks about the risk. Tessa says she has been meaning to make a doctor’s appointment but has had difficulty getting one through student insurance. The detail makes access part of the issue: avoiding pregnancy requires not just a decision between the couple but timely access to medical care.

Tessa does seek that care. At her appointment, Dr. West asks about her relationship and the occasions when she and Hardin have had unprotected sex. A nurse brings him a paper, and he tells Tessa she is not pregnant before they proceed with contraception. After discussing several options, she settles on the shot. The result offers immediate relief from the possibility of a current pregnancy, but it does not resolve the larger question raised by the examination.

A Possible Diagnosis, Not a Verdict

During the examination, Dr. West expresses concern about the size of Tessa’s cervix and recommends further testing. He stresses that the finding is not a diagnosis: he cannot determine its meaning from this exam alone, sees no cysts, and describes infertility only as the worst-case possibility. He orders blood tests and arranges a follow-up, leaving Tessa with uncertainty rather than an answer.

The wait has a defined span and a heavy emotional effect. The follow-up is three weeks away, and Tessa becomes preoccupied with the possibility that she may not be able to become pregnant. On her way downtown to take a passport photo and finish paperwork, she feels that nearly everyone she passes is pregnant or carrying a child. The sight does not establish anything about her own health; it sharpens her awareness of what she fears losing. She had thought she had partly come to terms with not having children, but the possibility now hurts. She decides not to tell Hardin until she knows more, partly because she doubts the information would change his plans.

The appointment therefore produces two different forms of knowledge. Tessa is told she is not pregnant, and she begins a contraceptive method, but the possible cervical concern remains unresolved. The shot addresses the immediate risk of pregnancy; the tests and delayed follow-up leave her facing a separate fear about whether pregnancy will ever be possible.

Parenthood as an Imagined Future

Tessa’s conversation with Natalie gives that fear a vivid, personal comparison. Natalie is days away from giving birth to her first son with Elijah, and she explains that Hardin’s earlier actions indirectly led her to meet the partner with whom she is building a life. Tessa understands that Natalie sees a painful past as part of the path to her present happiness. She does not want Hardin to become merely a painful episode she must forgive; she wants him to be her lasting partner and happy ending.

Natalie brings Tessa’s hand to her pregnant stomach, where the baby kicks. Tessa feels the movement and shares Natalie’s happiness, but the encounter also makes her imagine what may not be available to her: pregnancy, the physical sensation of a child moving, and the tenderness Natalie expresses as she speaks about her son. Her response is not a conclusion about her fertility. She reminds herself that nothing is certain, since Dr. West has not diagnosed her with infertility. The scene places joy and apprehension together, making another woman’s pregnancy both a moment of connection and a reminder of Tessa’s unresolved fear.

Conflicting Expectations and Stakes

The possibility of children is not only Tessa’s private medical concern. At dinner, Trish teases that Tessa is her only chance for grandchildren. Tessa chokes on her water, while Hardin recognizes that the remark could make her feel guilty or obligated. He thinks of their agreement not to have children and regards the subject, along with marriage, as a recurring source of conflict. He says that he wants Tessa for the rest of his life but will not marry her and does not want children. His certainty stands against Tessa’s newly exposed uncertainty about what she might want, and against the fear that she may not be able to choose parenthood even if her feelings change.

The medical scare thus unsettles an agreement that Hardin treats as settled. Tessa’s earlier expectation that she could accept a child-free life does not protect her from the pain of a possible infertility finding; nor does that pain establish that she has decided to become a parent. The narrative keeps diagnosis, desire, and choice distinct. Tessa has no confirmed infertility diagnosis, does not disclose her fear to Hardin while it remains uncertain, and continues toward other plans, including her trip to England. Parenthood remains an unresolved question, but it reveals a consequential difference between the future Hardin says he will accept and the future Tessa has not yet had the freedom—or the medical certainty—to define.