I can imagine that too. I'm not questioning the believability of the scenario, and I'm certainly not defending anything LW did over the forty years of friendship, in part because we have no idea what that was. I just get tired of the caricature of men as insensitive cretins, and it's worth remembering that we have feelings, and most of us would indeed be shocked and hurt to have forty years of pent-up hostility flung in our faces. If LW's first reaction is to feel defensive, that isn't exactly admirable, but like Cindy blowing up, it's understandable.