Hardin Scott—Zed

Hardin Scott—Zed is a rivalry shaped less by direct contact between the two men than by Hardin’s fear of what Zed’s connection with Tessa might mean. Tessa’s call to thank Zed for helping her becomes a test of Hardin and Tessa’s fragile effort to work through their problems; later, Hardin’s nightmare gives his jealousy a vivid imagined form. Even after Tessa distinguishes that dream from reality, Hardin insists that Zed’s presence in her life is intolerable—not only sexually, but emotionally as well.

The Call and Its Immediate Fallout

Tessa tells Hardin by phone that she has just called Zed. The disclosure is abrupt: she says it before she can talk herself out of it, and Hardin’s response is immediate silence followed by a sharp demand to know what she has done. Tessa explains that she called to thank Zed for what happened the previous weekend. Her account indicates that Zed intervened when she needed help; she later recalls that he took her to her mother’s house that night. The evidence does not describe the call as romantic or intimate. Tessa presents it as gratitude owed for a specific act of assistance.

Hardin hears the call through a different frame. He says he thought they were working on their problems, making Tessa’s contact with Zed seem to him like a threat to their efforts rather than a straightforward expression of thanks. His anger is audible in the way he breathes heavily into the receiver, and he snaps when Tessa begins to explain that Zed’s intervention mattered. The exchange shows that the disagreement is not simply over whether Tessa may speak to Zed: it concerns what their attempt to repair the relationship permits, and whether gratitude toward someone Hardin distrusts can remain separate from romantic allegiance.

The Nightmare as Jealousy Made Visible

Hardin later describes a nightmare about Tessa and Zed. In the dream, Hardin comes home to their—then corrects himself to his—apartment and finds Zed sexually involved with Tessa. He remembers Zed as taunting him throughout the scene. The correction from a shared apartment to his apartment is part of Hardin’s account, not proof that the dream depicts an actual event; Tessa explicitly tells him it was only a dream and that she would never do what he saw.

The nightmare gives physical form to the fear beneath the earlier phone call: that Zed might take Tessa from him, and that Hardin would have to witness the humiliation. Hardin says he cannot stop replaying the scene in his head. Tessa, whose hands are wrapped in thick tape, first covers her ears at the graphic description, then lowers her arms and asks why he thinks he had the dream. Her response redirects the conversation from the imagined sexual scene to its cause. Hardin answers that he likely dreamed it because Tessa had agreed to let Zed visit her in Seattle. The feared event remains imaginary; the possibility of Zed’s visit is real enough to trigger it.

Zed as a Stated Boundary

Hardin’s explanation becomes an explicit claim of control. He says he does not want Zed near Tessa and admits that this position is unreasonable, but insists that Zed is his line and will remain so. He dismisses the idea that kickboxing could change his feelings and declares that Tessa belongs only to him, not merely sexually but entirely. Most revealingly, he says he cannot stand her having any kind of emotional relationship with Zed. His objection therefore extends beyond physical infidelity: even a friendship or other emotional bond is presented as unacceptable.

Tessa counters his fear with concrete history. Zed has not been near her since the night he took her to her mother’s house, she reminds Hardin. That fact separates Zed’s past intervention from the intimacy Hardin has imagined and challenges the scale of his reaction. It does not, however, settle the disagreement. Hardin’s panic does not subside; he looks down and tries to regulate himself by breathing deeply. The contrast is central to the relationship: Tessa appeals to what Zed has actually done, while Hardin remains governed by what he fears Zed could do.

An Unresolved Rivalry

Hardin’s confession makes the terms of the conflict unusually plain. He recognizes that his stance is excessive, yet self-awareness does not make him willing to yield. His claim that Tessa is entirely his turns jealousy into a demand reaching across both sexual and emotional boundaries. At the same time, the sequence shows that his fear is not presented as evidence of Tessa’s betrayal: the sexual encounter exists only in a nightmare, while her call to Zed is described as thanks for his help.

The relationship between Hardin and Zed consequently remains indirect but consequential. Zed’s intervention and the prospect of his visit are enough to provoke Hardin’s anger and recurring anxiety, even though Tessa says he has not been near her since taking her home. Tessa’s effort to explain the distinction does not resolve Hardin’s objection, and the scene ends with his panic still present. What remains unsettled is whether Hardin can accept Tessa’s independent relationships without treating them as a threat to his claim on her.