“Okay, imagine this…those guys come back in here, but Derek doesn’t arrive. What do you do?”
“I wait for him to arrive.”
“Right, but say they have chainsaws and big, scary torture devices. Are you still going to wait around for him to arrive?” When she still didn’t answer, I continued. “Say they come at you with a chainsaw, and they’re going to rip you apart limb by limb. Are you really going to sit there because you expect your hubby to come to the rescue? Or are you going to do something about it?”
“Well, I would assume if I haven’t done anything yet, it’s because I can’t get myself out of the situation I’m in.”
“Exactly my point! You’ve already said you should just sit around and wait for him to show up. You haven’t helped yourself at all! But! Imagine if you could get yourself out of that situation.You kill the bad guys, blow up the building, and walk out with flames shooting into the sky behind you. And as you’re walking out, Derek finally arrives and sees his badass woman walking out of a burning building. Tell me he’s not gonna be hard as a rock from that sight.”
A smile played across her lips as she considered it. “Well, I always wanted to be Maggie.”
“See?”
“And I do enjoy blowing stuff up. I mean, it’s kind of a contradiction that I’m always so prepared for a fight, but then I wait to be rescued.”
“Exactly. And why should you wait for a man?”
She nodded along with me. “Yeah. I mean, I’m capable.”
“Right?”
“Not that Derek would notice. He pretty much said that I was only here because it wasn’t dangerous.”
“Because you’ve let him think that you need to be rescued!”
“Yeah. Because men need to be the ones who rush in and save the day. Well, not anymore. I won’t be held down by the tyrannical boot of the alpha male!”
“You go, sister!”
“I can get myself out of this all on my own!”
“You know it!”
“And I will show him that I can fight my way out, and I don’t need some man to rescue me!”
“See? He’s had you thinking that you’re not capable!”
She scoffed at that. “Well, not anymore. I don’t need a man to fight my battles.”
“Hell no!”
“I don’t need some man to tell me I’m too weak. I’m the opposite of weak! I’m formidable!”
“You’re Fort Knox!”
“I was going to say Timur.”
“Who the hell is Timur?”
“Oh, he was the first ruler of the Timurid dynasty. He was undefeated in battle, and is pretty much considered the greatest ruler of all time.”
I nodded, not really interested.
“You’d know that if you read.”
“I guess I’ll have to go on through my life knowing that I was bested by you because I didn’t read enough about some ancient guru.”
“He was actually from Uzbekistan. And it was in the 1400s, so not really that ancient.”