Mrs Herbert sighs. “Not kind, Lila. Necessary. This cafe, this whole row of businesses, it’s been a lifeline for people like me. I lost my husband five years ago, and coming here, seeing you, seeing the others, having somewhere to go… It’s kept me going.”
My chest tightens.
The weight of her words sits heavy.
“It’s not just me,” Mrs Herbert continues, her voice lower now, raw. “Do you know how many people rely on this place? On all of you? I don’t understand why someone would want to take that away.”
I swallow hard.
Lila exhales, and I can hear the emotion in her voice. “Me neither.”
Fuck.
I lean back against the shelves, pressing the heels of my hands into my eyes.
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
This wasn’t supposed to be personal.
I didn’t get where I am by letting shit like this get to me.
Now, I’m hiding in a back room, my body still wrecked from touching Lila, listening to a woman pour her heart out about how my fucking project is about to gut the very place she’s built her life around.
I clench my jaw, pressing my fingers into my temples as Mrs Herbert’s words echo in my head.
A lifeline.
Kept me going.
I exhale sharply through my nose. No.
They’re wrong.
They don’t see the long-term benefits. The opportunities.
They don’t see—
But then, a quiet voice in the back of my head mutters.What if you don’t see it either?
I shut it down. I can make her understand. She just has to listen.
I can show her, show all of them that this isn’t about guttingtheir community. It’s about elevating it. Creating something sustainable, something better. A future, not a stagnant memory.
She just needs to trust me.
She just needs to let me explain.
The door chimes again, and I hear Mrs Herbert murmur her goodbyes. Footsteps shuffle toward the back.
Lila freezes the second she sees me and in an instant, I know.
She’s shutting down.
I see it in the way her shoulders tense, the way she wraps her arms around herself like she’s trying to hold something, everything, together.
The warmth in her eyes? Gone.
That soft, breathless haze from before? Gone.
