>I think I need to say "thank you" and "oops" both here-- thank you,
>first off, for pointing me in the right direction, and oops because I
>wasn't trying to criticize this story, but instead I was looking for a
>guideline if I ever got into a similar situation in my own writing.

Well, you're welcome. :) And good luck on avoiding the trope if you aren't deliberately invoking it! It's a pernicious little squib and hard to stomp out.

Constant vigilance and all that, it gets kind of wearing, but the big trick is to make sure that if someone says, "Um, you're doing this thing..." you have to not get defensive (and trust me, I've gotten defensive.)