I get it but I think it all stems from when he told her he prefers Colleen’s looks to hers. I get the feeling that Zanab feels uncomfortable around Cole in general and has a hard time relaxing her guard around him. Cole said it himself: she was a different person in the pods. Warm and bubbly and positive. Now she’s irritable and snappish and negative. I think it’s because she is anxious and wound tight around him because she doesn’t trust that he really wants to marry her.

Iirc, he said the thing about Colleen only a day or two after they’d had sex for the first time. Cole couldn’t have known this but Zanab is clearly insecure about her physical appearance already. She was kind of warning him about it when she was “joking” about her makeup routine, which is pretty extensive. So his comments hit her in an already sensitive place. I don’t exactly fault Cole for being honest (it is what it is) but it was a really dumb and unfortunate thing to say to a woman if you truly want your relationship with her to work out. I think it hurt her really deeply and that kind of thing is virtually impossible to come back from at such an early stage in their relationship. One week to a month in, you should both still be high on endorphins and thinking the other is perfect and wondering how did you get so lucky, etc. etc. Not hearing that he prefers the physical appearance of your friend to you. I can’t see coming back from that either, at that stage. A year or two in when you have trust and commitment built up? Sure maybe. But not at that early point.