Page 59 of The Fighter
I leaned back in my chair. “Yes. But he wouldn’t let her work in a position equal to him, that’s for sure. All the men are misogynistic. I even see it with my dad at times.”
“You’ve got to stop using that word, Raven. It means that he would have to hate women. And Boulder definitely doesn’t hate women.”
“Okay, so maybe there are levels of it, but misogyny also means to hold a prejudice against women, and you can’t say that the men here don’t hold strong prejudices against us.”
Willow rested both forearms on the table. “They do but it’s a matter of conditioning and ignorance. For centuries they have been taught that women can’t do what men can, but that just leaves it to us to prove them wrong.”
I threw my hands up. “Which is what I’m doing but it’s hard when I’m surrounded by bigots and chauvinists.”
The bar-bot brought drinks for us and we cheered.
Raising her glass, Willow whispered, “Let’s just enjoy that we are here together and ignore the five guys across the room who are staring in our direction.”
“They are just curious.” Mila turned around and smiled at the group of men.
I spoke without moving my lips. “Don’t do that, Mila. You’ll only encourage them.”
“I’m just being friendly.”
“I know, but your friendliness might make them come over here, and then we’ll have the guards storming in asking them to back off. I just want to enjoy a quiet meal with my good friends.”
Willow backed me up. “Yeah, Mila, less smiling and more updating, please.”
“Okay, but what do you want to know?”
Willow’s index finger was circling the rim of her glass. “How are things with Jonah?”
“You mean in the council?”
“Yes.”
“Well, he’s working hard to get some of his ideas through, but it’s hard with him being the only male on the Motherland council. He did have one victory last week, though.”
“What victory?”
“There’s a blended family who live up here in the Northlands and the father has never been allowed to go on vacation to the Motherlands with his family.”
“Why not?”
“He could never get a visa because he had a criminal past. But the wife has been advocating for it for years and with Jonah’s help he finally had his first visa approved.”
I lowered my brow. “What kind of criminal was he? I hope they didn’t allow some psycho into the Motherlands.”
Mila picked up her glass. “According to my mom he got in a bar fight once and killed a man, but that was way back in the late twenties. He served his time and hasn’t been violent since, except for the time when he and my dad were in a drunken fight.” Mila placed her index finger on her forearm. “My dad still has a scar right here from that fight.”
Blowing a lock of my curly black hair out of my eyes, I stared at Mila. “Wait a minute, are we talking about that man your mom helped catch after the earthquake?” My fingers were snapping in the air as I was trying to recall his name. “Laura told me about him. What was his name again, Demon, or Devil or something?”
“Surely not.” Willow raised a hand to her chest. “I mean the Nmen have strange names, but I can’t imagine it would be legal to name a childthat.”
Mila shrugged. “I don’t remember his name either, but my mom told me how he got through the wall during the big earthquake and that his wife, Julia, hid him. Apparently, she had a major thing for Nmen.”
“Yes, Laura told me that story too. He was sent back to Northlands and Julia was forbidden to come and be with him.”
“Why?”
“With his criminal past, the council deemed him dangerous and they saw her as mentally unstable for wanting to put herself in danger. He was a convicted murderer after all.”
Willow moved in her seat. “Then what happened?”
