I don't feel there's anything particularly wrong with it. That woman was pretty right about her no riders for strangers policy, that's literally the start of half of creepy stalker movies for a reason. Are we seriously going to shit on her for not wanting to risk potential harm or death because a guy she saw for the first time in her life helped her to change a tire?
(a guy who is apparently still sore about it to this day, i might add. If Robert is supposed to possibly have similar attitude, then it hardly makes him more endearing)
Right, because a fat pimple faced teenage boy wearing a McDonald's uniform walking to work with headphones on is the typical serial killing rapist in these works of fiction and reality. The uncomfortable truth is that it has nothing to do with safety... It's just another person with a "Fuck you, I got mine." mentality. If she was truly afraid of me / considered me a threat then logically she would have not accepted my help in the first place. She would have said: "A tow truck is on the way." Because if she truly believed that I am a bad guy then I am much more dangerous with a tire iron in my hand. She handed me the thing willingly because she didn't know how to use it. If I was a bad guy I could have bonked her right on the head with it. She wasn't afraid of me. It had nothing to do with fear.
The reason I remember shit like this 20 years later is because it left a sour taste in my mouth, and helped to form my world view of how awful many people are in general. It is hypocritical to accept help, then not give it in turn. It's not the only situation where I met a person like that. I'll give another personal example that helped feed my general sense of misanthropy.
I was in college. Every day during lunch I'd head outside and have a cigarette. There was this one guy, his name was Ron. Over the course of the first 3 months of college I would say I bummed the guy about a pack of cigarettes. Multiple times a week the guy just had no cigarettes, and he was broke we were both college kids. I was working, and I bought my cigarettes. He would bum one, and then we would bullshit about whatever for our cigarette break, and I thought we were becoming friends.
Then one day I was the one without cigarettes. On the way to class I noticed Ron outside opening a fresh pack of cigarettes, but I just kept walking. Later that same day during lunch, I asked Ron. "Hey can I get a cigarette I don't have any today." He didn't have one for me that day, and after that I never had another cigarette for Ron ever again.
You have to understand that Lena / Robert don't know each other that well early on. They are literally just coworkers for the past few months that may briefly say a word to each other, but I think it is fair to say he had a crush on her.
Robert had to find out if she is the kind of woman that "Won't give me the time of day." before he was willing to help her career. He already got punched in the fucking head for her at this point... What is he supposed to do, bow down and lick her boots even if he means nothing to her?
I think there is some subtext there where Robert has been hurt in the past by women. Because if Lena don't put out and she is like, "You are going to fast" blah blah blah, but after acting like she is interested. That just ends things for him. He is not interested in wasting his time and effort in something fruitless. He doesn't want to play games. I don't think he wants to be used again. At the same time if she sleeps with him just 1 time she can string him along forever and ever and ever...
