“Right, stop. What does barman do?” “. . . Work in a bar?” “Right, works in a bar. There’s nothing wrong with that. But he’s, what, thirty?” “Thirty-two.” “You are four years older than him, Emily, you live here and you are a boss, and you depend on no one. Have you got any idea how threatening that is to the male ego, for women not to need them? Do you think it came from nowhere, Rob the thirty-two-year-old barman’s need to put you down, to break you in some way, to humiliate you?” Laurie thought about her own working week. You were equal with these men so long as you didn’t make them feel
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