So typical. The meeting got moved because Hannah had a conflict.
“How come every time she has a problem, everyone always jumps to accommodate her?” Masie said. “If I said I wouldn’t be able to make it, they’d probably just tell me to have someone catch me up after.”
“Well, we had to move it. It’s her numbers we need.”
Masie glared at him. “Like she doesn’t have an assistant? Like she doesn’t have ten other people working for her? You think she actually did that report herself?”
“What is your problem with Hannah?” Rupert said, almost laughing.
“My problem is that everyone fawns all over her just because she’s so—” Masie caught herself, realizing she was about to pay Hannah a compliment. “Because she’s so attractive.”
“Oh, come on. That’s not it, and you know it.”
“What do you mean?” though she knew perfectly well.
“Masie, you have no shortage of dates yourself. Hannah gets what she wants because she knows how to ask for it.”
She knew he was right. She was only blaming it on Hannah’s looks because that was something out of her control.
“I just don’t know how she does it. She’s so assertive. She’s like a man!”
“That’s your problem right there,” Rupert said. “She’s like a man? As if she’s mastered some masculine quality that you don’t possess? Assertive people are assertive people. You either do it—be assertive—or you don’t.”
“So how do you do it?”
“You know, Hannah’s actually a nice person. I’ve had to work with her a lot. Why don’t you ask her?”
Masie had to admit, she’d never been given any reason to think of the poor woman as some kind of antagonist. “Okay,” she said. “I think I will.”