*****
Chapter 12
Evan
“Jesus Christ,” I spoke aloud though no one was in the office but me.
The front page article in the paper had floored me. This was the second time that Lexi had been in the news in only a few days, and this was worse than the first. I couldn’t imagine how she was handling it.
Most likely blaming me. It kind of was my fault, but not directly.
I’d done as she asked and not bothered her again after our Facebook conversation. She had requested I leave her alone. As hard as it had been, I had opted to do what she wanted. That meant we hadn’t talked in a little over a week.
Even when I’d seen her at the event we hosted, she hadn’t spoken. In fact, she’d barely looked at me before turning around to her Society friends and pretending I didn’t exist. Which only hurt me worse than I was already hurting.
It was then that I’d realized we were doing this wrong. The reason the community was divided was because we’d divided them. Not us specifically. GHM and the Society had divided them. So then they looked to both of us as we represented them and saw us as being divided. They were taking sides. Either one of our sides or the places we represented.
I wanted to tell her that. I wanted to say how much better it would be if we’d only present a united front to the community. If they saw that the development couldn’t divide us and the companies we were working for, they wouldn’t let it divide them. But I hadn’t been able to tell her that. Because she’d refused to be anywhere near me the entire event. By the end, I’d decided that it was best for me to honor her request and just leave her alone.
This could change things, however. She didn’t deserve this. And no matter how badly I didn’t want to upset her, the urge to help her was stronger. I picked up the paper to read the article again.
Locals Boycott Biltmore Village Candy Shop in Protest
Locals and visitors in Biltmore Village have seen an unusual sight as they pass through the area recently. Lines of people are marching outside a local candy shop carrying signs and chanting words of boycott against the shop’s owner, Alexis Haraway.
Signs carrying messages of dissatisfaction with the owner’s recent choices in regards to a proposed resort development in one of Asheville’s primary historical district warn others that she is in bed with the enemy.
“We mean this quite literally,” spoke Margaret Whipple who claims to have been a longstanding supporter and customer of the candy shop until recent days. “She’s taken up with that Yankee and his warped ideals and turned her back on us.”
“Mostly we just want to know if we can trust her,” Archie Travis told reporters. “Seems to be we can’t.”
“She was put in a position of respect and she turned her back on it.” A commenter asking to remain anonymous spoke freely.
Haraway recently made news as her involvement with frontman on the potential Willow’s Resort development and the problems it is causing came to light. As the head of the Preservation Society, Haraway is expected to help lead the battle against the development and its intrusion on historical grounds. However many, including some on the Society with her, feel that Haraway has been slacking in her duties.
Evan Monroe, frontman in question, even stated of his own accord during a recent HRC meeting that Haraway was using unfair tactics to fight against the company behind the development. “Nothing else matters,” Monroe said in regards to the proposed resort.
An attempt to reach Haraway for her side of the story resulted in a refusal to speak with journalists. However, a spokesperson for the candy shop said that Haraway is ‘hurt and surprised’ at the people she thought of as friends and their recent choices. “She fights hard for her community and this is the repayment that she gets.”
The shop has been closed for over a week and there are no
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