Tessa Calls Zed, Who Suggests Visiting Seattle

Tessa’s call to Zed begins as an overdue thank-you for rescuing her at the party, but it opens onto a more complicated question: whether they can remain friends, and whether he can visit her in Seattle. The conversation briefly repairs a misunderstanding between them and gives Zed room to suggest a visit. Tessa’s subsequent call with Hardin reveals how little room that suggestion has in their strained relationship: she chooses not to conceal it, but Hardin responds by forbidding it, and she ultimately agrees.

Background and Purpose

By Friday evening, Tessa is exhausted and tense after a difficult first week in Seattle. She has been alternating between feeling more capable of finding her way and feeling as confused as ever. The new surroundings sharpen what she misses: the familiarity of the old campus, Landon’s company, Hardin meeting her between classes, and even Zed and the glowing flowers in the environmental studies building. In the room where she is staying, she puts down her political science textbook and reaches for her phone.

The immediate reason for calling is that she has not spoken to Zed since he rescued her from Steph and Dan at the party and drove her to her mother’s house. She recognizes that she has delayed thanking him partly because she has tried not to think about what happened. That avoidance does not erase either the danger or her sense of obligation; it makes the call an attempt to acknowledge both. The event therefore begins with gratitude, but also with Tessa trying to resume contact after a frightening experience she has not yet found easy to discuss.

Apology and the Rescue

Tessa apologizes for failing to call sooner, then emphasizes that she should have thanked Zed in particular because he arrived when she needed help. The memory remains physical and immediate: recalling Dan’s fingertips trailing up her thigh makes her shiver. Zed gently interrupts her before she can continue imagining what might have happened. He tells her that he stopped them before anything could happen and that she does not owe him thanks. His response does not deny the seriousness of the incident; it redirects her away from reliving it and refuses to treat his intervention as a debt she must repay.

Tessa also apologizes for accusing Zed of texting her from Hardin’s phone. She explains that Steph admitted she had sent the messages during the incident involving Dan. Zed accepts the apology without anger, even acknowledging that he had seemed the likeliest suspect. The exchange corrects a specific false suspicion and gives the call a second purpose: alongside thanking him for the rescue, Tessa is taking responsibility for having mistrusted him. Her repeated readiness to apologize is itself becoming visible to her; both Zed and Robert have told her that she apologizes too much, and she recognizes the pattern when Zed points it out again.

Friendship and the Proposed Visit

The call also registers the collapse of the group around Zed. He tells Tessa that they are no longer much of a group: Tristan is leaving for New Orleans in a few days, and Zed has not seen Steph on campus all week. This update places Tessa’s injury within a broader fracture among people who had once belonged to the same social circle. Her hurt at Steph’s betrayal is personal, but the former group’s connections are also coming apart.

When Zed asks whether he might visit Seattle, he first frames the question through their uncertain friendship: he wants to know whether they can be friends and whether a visit would be welcome. Tessa says they can be friends, although she cannot say when she will return to visit him. She admits to herself that she had wanted to go back that weekend and misses both Hardin and the quieter streets farther east. The thought that she has called that place home unsettles her, since she lived there for only six months; she recognizes that the feeling is bound up with Hardin, whose presence makes a place feel like home to her.

Zed then offers the possibility of making the trip himself. He has friends in Seattle and asks whether Tessa would be comfortable with a visit. She enthusiastically says yes. He is flying to Florida to see his parents that weekend and is already running late for his flight, so he tentatively raises the following weekend as a possibility. The proposal remains only a possibility, not a settled plan, but it changes the call from a conversation about the past into one that could affect Tessa’s new life and her relationship with Hardin.

Disclosure and Hardin’s Prohibition

Tessa tells Hardin about the call a few minutes after speaking with Zed. She does so abruptly, anticipating that it is better to disclose the contact than to hide it. Hardin’s silence and sharp reaction make clear that even a conversation motivated by gratitude is difficult for him to accept. Tessa explains that she owed Zed thanks for intervening at the party; Hardin replies that he knows, but his response does not settle the question of a visit.

Once Tessa mentions that Zed is considering coming to Seattle, Hardin makes his position absolute: Zed is not coming, and the discussion is over. Tessa objects by addressing him directly, but Hardin insists that he is trying hard not to lose control and asks her to help him. She eventually gives in. Her decision is not presented as enthusiasm for the prohibition: she sighs in defeat and reasons that spending time with Zed could end badly for everyone, including Zed.

Tessa’s private explanation complicates the apparent resolution. She does not want to lead Zed on again, and she doubts that their connection can be strictly platonic—not only from Hardin’s perspective, but from Zed’s as well. That judgment gives the refusal a basis beyond Hardin’s jealousy, without making his unilateral ban disappear. The call thus ends with two acts of candor—Tessa tells Zed she welcomes a visit, then tells Hardin about it—and a retreat from the possibility she has just accepted. Its significance lies in that conflict: gratitude and friendship draw Tessa toward Zed, while her attachment to Hardin and her recognition of the unresolved attraction between herself and Zed lead her to accept Hardin’s demand.