“Sure,” April said. She sat down at the kitchen table. “I’m sorry about last time I was here. I shouldn’t have stormed out like that.”
“That’s okay,” Eliza said. “I know you didn’t mean anything by it. You were upset.”
“That’s still no excuse. It was rude. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine, don’t worry about it. I’m sure it was a shock to hear that I’m leaving after all this time. It was a shock to me as well.”
Eliza brought the tea over to the table and handed a cup to April. April inhaled the faintly floral scent. It was calming.
“I’ve been thinking about moving in with my sister since my diagnosis,” Eliza said. “It makes more sense than my living here by myself. But I’m going to miss this place. And West Heights, and all the people who live here.”
“We’re going to miss you too,” April said.
Eliza continued to fill April in on her plans. The sale of her house had just gone through, and she would be moving in a month or so. To April, a month seemed too short.
“That’s enough about me,” Eliza said. “I hear you’re in talks with the woman from Oasis. How’s that going?”
April recounted the events of both her meetings with Vicki. “And in the end, all she had to say was ‘it’s just business.’ That’s all she cares about. Money.”
“All she cares about?” Eliza asked. “Is it Oasis you’re mad at, or Vicki?”
April folded her arms on her chest. “As far as I’m concerned, they’re one and the same.”
“You know that’s not true. She doesn’t deserve to be the target of your anger. She’s just one woman trying to do her job. You’re always so quick to see the world as black and white, good and evil. There are shades of gray.”
“Maybe you’re right.” Once again, April was letting her feelings about Vicki cloud her judgment. Was it unrealistic of her to try to keep their two worlds separate?
It didn’t matter. Right now, April had a more important problem to deal with.
“It’s obvious that Oasis isn’t open to negotiation,” she said. “I’m trying to come up with some other way to save the library, but I’m out of ideas.” April recounted everything they’d already tried, from sending out letters to the library’s regular donors, to submitting a signed petition to the mayor.
“Maybe you need to cast a wider net,” Eliza said.
“What do you mean?”
“My sister was telling me about how a middle school in Seattle was being shut down and combined with a high school halfway across the city. The students and teachers started a petition online to stop it. It was
shared all over the internet, and they got thousands of signatures. And it worked. All the negative publicity meant that the school board was forced to rescind the proposal.”
“Huh.” April had already started an online fundraising page. Maybe she needed to think bigger.
“Could you do what they did?” Eliza asked. “Mobilize the wider community online, really get the attention of Oasis and everyone involved with the project?”
“That’s not a bad idea.”
April sipped her tea thoughtfully. Eliza was on the right track. But April was going to do far more than an online petition. She was going to turn the entire city against Oasis Developments.
Vicki wouldn’t know what hit her.
Chapter Thirteen
The following Monday, April had barely returned from her lunch break when Vicki came storming into the office at the back of the library. She was closely followed by the head librarian, who mouthed April a silent apology before scurrying off.
Vicki marched up to April’s desk. “What the hell did you do?”
April suppressed a smile. “What do you mean?”
“You know exactly what I mean,” Vicki said.