Previously: An apartment ultimatum.
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Samantha: Tessa and Hardin don’t get to bed until 4 am, but Hardin tells her to just get up at 7:30 instead of her usual 5. As in 5 am. 5 in the morning. Gak. They fall asleep.
We’re next treated to Tessa getting ready, complete with a ruby dress that is attractive without being whorey and brown eyeliner. She doesn’t need blush because she has sex afterglow. She kisses a sleeping Hardin goodbye and spends the walk to her car fantasizing about their apartment. GAK AGAIN. WHY IS THIS THE PLOT.
When she gets to work, an attractive-ish man gets into the elevator with her and asks if she’s new. Ah yes, the everyone-wants-to-bang-the-protagonist- trope. His name is Trevor. I spent too much time trying to figure out if he was one of the 1D boys. I don’t think so?
Marines: I thought we met all those boys as the unimportant Hardin friends? I don’t know, but more importantly, I just realized that I don’t care. They all exist in a plotless wasteland where their only purpose is to want to bang the protagonist and antagonize the love interest.
Samantha: Tessa grabs a donut and coffee and marvels at how lucky she is with this internship. A little while later, she’s interrupted by Hardin arriving to “see how your first full day was going.“
Mari: This is weird and inappropriate, please stop.
Samantha: The office assistant Kimberly is hella interested in the going ons of teenage interns apparently, but Tessa and Hardin are interrupted by Mr. Vance. He asks if Hardin has come to grovel, and Hardin laughs and calls him a wanker. Cool. Hardin says he’s here to stalk the intern and everyone laughs and Tessa delights in seeing Hardin be playful and it’s
Hardin takes Tessa to lunch because she gets an hour at this ridiculous internship. Hardin is vaguely panicked because Tessa hadn’t texted him back all morning. While she was at her job. He gets her a jacket out of the trunk of his car, which takes an entire page for some reason. Tessa thinks everyone on the street is staring at them because they look like opposites. I say they’re staring because they can smell the Garbage People stench.
Mari: Two attractive white people, but one has a dress and one has *gulp* tattoos how OPPOSITE. Stare everyone! Stare!
Samantha: They head to a fancy Italian restaurant, and Tessa gets distracted by a mural of heaven where an angel of light (who’s white) is trying to pull an angel of darkness (who’s black) to the side of Heaven or whatever.
Mari: On the pie chart of nonsense this book is filled with, I’d say like 25% is references to works of art to provide the thematic backdrop to this relationship which isn’t that deep, serious or complicated.
Samantha: Hardin orders for them. Tessa remarks on how nice it is to see him be a normal, cheerful human. They head back to the office and Hardin comes up, mostly so I can go from bored to fuming because the guy from the elevator is back! And he says, and I quote, “Hey, it’s you again.” And Tessa responds, and I quote, “Hey, it’s you again.” And smiles. Then he politely introduces himself to Hardin and leaves. I hope you have the full scope of the banality of that interaction because Hardin flips the f out.
When we walk into my office Hardin grabs my wrist and turns me to face him. “What the hell was that?” he spits out.
Tessa wonders if he’s joking but oh no, Tess dear. This is the man himself. Abusive and controlling. Causing a scene at her place of work. Over literally nothing. Tessa tells him that they just met that morning, but Hardin accuses her of knowing him and flirting with him???? Because being pleasant is flirting in Nowhere and NuUh.
Mari: And even if she were flirting and Hardin were upset about that, GET YOUR DIRTY ABUSER HANDS OFF OF HER. LET HER GO. The way it’s just so casually dropped that he GRABS HER and MOVES HER in order to position her for maximum YELLING OVER NOTHING.
I hate.
Samantha: Goooooood point. Never okay. NEVER OKAY.
He says that Tessa would flirt with him because he’s clean cut and in a suit? And, JFC, Tessa sees into his poor little tortured soul and realizes that he’s just hurt and scared.
Fuck off.
Her “instincts” tell her to tell him to gtfo. You know. The part of her brain that knows a red flag when it sees a million of them. But she decides to try a different tactic and be gentle with him. Gotta protect those fragile male egos above safety and security. She tells him that she doesn’t want a guy like that, she just wants him. Then she apologizes????? That he thought she was flirting?????
How can one person be so strong yet so weak?
They say I love you and Hardin apologizes and says he doesn’t deserve her. Saying “oh, I’m such a jerk” and “I don’t deserve you” don’t actually absolve you of your shitty behaviors. FYI.
Mari: Yes, wow v good message: go against your fight or flight instincts, coddle and apologize to men, and see their abusive tactics and behaviors as weaknesses to feel bad about. *romance confetti*
Samantha: Tessa shows him her bookshelf and says that she wants to put a picture of them together on it. Hardin says maybe and then talks about how sexy she is in her ruby-sexy-but-modest-dress. He puts her on the desk and starts feeling her up and wanting to lock the door. Tessa’s about to tell him to lock it when her phone rings. It’s Kimberly, the office assistant, telling her that Mr. Vance is on his way to her office because she knew these two can’t keep it in their pants I guess. Or maybe she saw Hardin’s murder expression earlier and wanted to make sure Tessa was still alive.
Mari: Definitely that one. I wouldn’t be surprised if she called Mr. Vance in the first place and sent him over to make sure they didn’t have a dead intern.
Next time on After: Another set of rando guys, another fight in Chapter 81.
I'm a 28 year old graduated English major and almost librarian. I can often be found singing too loudly (poorly) in the car or spending some time (hours) on Tumblr. I am a lover of Harry Potter, the Spice Girls, and too many other things.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
