by JD Strand
"Hello, Elise," Stewart said. "I guess I missed you again." Pause. "Okay, bye."
There was a similar earlier message from Stewart Olson.
Another beep, and her boss said, "Hello, Elise. I thought you'd be home by now." Pause as if he was waiting for her to pick up the phone. "Anyway, I talked to a friend downtown who assured me that we will have a restraining order against those lazy protesters first thing in the morning. Let those hippies go find something else to do like saving the whales, right?" Stewart chuckled before continuing, "We need to make sure they don't cause a problem when the city council comes by on Wednesday. Anyway, I guess I'll talk to you tomorrow."
Elise stared at the answering machine for a long time before getting ready for bed. She wondered whether she could get Cody and the protesters to take a break for one day. She pictured his grinning face and wondered if she could get Stewart to understand that the people of Haight-Ashbury were just concerned with the effect the store would have on their businesses and the unique character of the area.
An idea came to her. Why not have a meeting with the people protesting as well as other residents of the neighborhood to present the benefits of having a Smart-Shop there. It could be very similar to the presentation she had given to the city council but geared more toward the concerns of those living in the Haight. The notion brought another smile to her face, although this one was more businesslike than the previous one.
She climbed into bed with her brain already busy on creating a presentation for the people of Haight-Ashbury. Given this and the fact that her time with Penny and Cody had stirred up some unfamiliar emotions, it was no great surprise that the young woman's sleep was less than peaceful. She tossed and turned, recalling how her typically well-planned complication-free life had been turned upside down.
Elise rolled on her side as a loud scene in front of the Smart-Shop played in her head.
"What do we want?" Cody address the crowd of protesters through a megaphone.
"Elise Warren!" The protesters shouted back. As she watched, Penny emerged from the crowd, holding a baseball bat.
"When do we want her?" Cody asked.
"Now!" Penny's voice rose above all the others.
In her bed, Elise rolled to the other side. In her dream, Elise saw herself dangling from a cable that didn't appear to be attached to anything. Suddenly, rather than looking at herself from the outside, she was looking through her own eyes.
"What do we want?"
"Elise Warren!"
"When do we want her?"
"Now!" The chanting continued over and over.
Elise looked down from her position a few feet off the ground to see Penny being blindfolded and spun around by someone with his back to her. All at once, the person turned to reveal Stewart Olson wearing a big smile.
"Go get her, Penny!" Stewart cheered.
The little girl walked wobbly toward her. The red bandana blindfolding her had slipped down enough for to see Elise.
"Penny, you don't have to do this," she pleaded. "We're friends, remember?"
Penny giggled and answered, "Friends don't hurt friends." She swung the bat but missed completely. Elise heard the whoosh of air as the bat moved past her ear.
"Come on, Penny, we don't have time to waste!" Elise looked over to see Theresa Stewart smiling sweetly as she encouraged the little girl.
Penny drew the bat back as far as she could and swung with all her might. Everything went into slow motion. Elise could see people yelling and laughing but no sound came out. Stewart and Theresa stood together pointing at her while shaking their heads. Elise looked for Cody. Somewhere in the back of her mind was the thought that the young man could save her. The bat slowly approached her. Then out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Cody. Her expected savior was grinning at her. Just as the bat made contact with Elise, she woke up with a jump.
It took a moment for her to realize that she was in her bed. She remembered every image of the dream and even looked down at her side where the bat would have stuck her. She took a deep breath as she saw that there was no mark, nothing that would have been the result of being hit with a baseball bat.
Elise got out of bed and walked around the apartment trying to reconnect herself to reality. As a little girl, she had suffered from nightmares often enough that her parents had discussed taking her to a psychologist. Fortunately, the problem had disappeared before the appointment was ever made. She remembered being afraid that everyone would think she was crazy if she had to go to a psychologist. She could not remember the last time she'd had a bad dream.
The memory of everyone laughing as the little girl beat her like a piñata ran through her head. "Geez, paranoid much, Elise?" She asked aloud. Her voice sounded a little shaky, but the sound was enough to push the images aside.
Elise looked at the clock to see it was just 4:30.
"Too early to be up, but too late to go back to sleep," she thought.
For the first time in a long time, she really looked at the pans hanging from the black metal rack above the island in the kitchen. Elise couldn't remember the last time she had used them. Not that she was particularly hungry, but the idea of cooking appealed to her. She stood on her toes to lift the big cast iron frying pan up high enough to raise its handle off the hook. The pan was heavier than she remembered, but the weight felt good and solid in her hand as she set it down on the stove.
The process of preparing a meal brought her a sense of a long-lost part of herself. These were things that had seemed painful reminders of youthful foolishness. There had been a time in Elise’s life when being a chef at a top-rated restaurant was her secret dream.
Now, as soon as she began the repetitive chopping of the onions and peppers, she remembered the sound that had once been her favorite music. Elise could not recall the reason she had ever stopped cooking.
She poured some olive oil into the pan and dumped the vegetables in after. It didn't take long for the smell of the cooking vegetables to fill the kitchen.
"Now it smells like a home," Elise thought.
She stirred the vegetables until they were seared and then poured them onto a plate. After whisking a coupled of eggs, she added some spices and poured them into the frying pan before replacing the vegetables. This had been Elise's favorite way making scrambled eggs since she was six years old and used to make breakfast for her family every Sunday. The memory brought a flood of emotions. One of the emotions was curiosity.
As she sat down to eat, a question bounced through Elise's head; why had she suddenly had the desire to cook after all this time? The pans had been hanging in the same place for over a year. Without having to think about it too long, the young business woman knew that the reason for this sudden change was Cody. The young man had certainly disrupted her carefully scheduled life.
The thought of Cody forced a smile to Elise's lips. She could still feel the fluttering butterflies as she walked with him on the street, and that kiss had been incredible.
She finished the eggs without really tasting them and looked up to see it was almost five thirty. This was the time her alarm normally woke her. The official start of her day. Another first, she had not written a note to herself about what she needed to get done today. It took Elise a minute to recall precisely what the day ahead held for her.
She needed to talk to Stewart about the restraining order he had gotten against the protesters. Elise felt confident that he would listen to her detail why taking the action against the protesters, who were residents of the neighborhood, didn't make good business sense. Alienating potential customers was never good for profits. Avoiding any action that could have negative effects on the bottom-line was one of the principles which guided Stewart Olson's life. She smiled as she imagined how easy this problem would be solved.
This optimism continued as Elise showered and dressed for the day ahead. She was in the parking garage of the office when the idea of calling just to talk to Cody struck her. The image of a grinn
ing Cody with his dimples made her smile once more, but she fought the urge to call in favor of getting to work.
Kristen was already at her desk and listening to someone on the phone when Elise walked into the office. The red-headed secretary looked at her with exaggerated intensity and held up an index finger to signal for Elise to wait. She finished the phone call and looked closely at the young woman once more.
"I've seen that look before but never on you," Kristen commented seriously as if studying some difficult problem. "If I didn't know better, I'd say someone is in love or, at least, in serious like."
Elise felt her face turn red. "I don't have any idea what you're talking about," she protested and a moment later said, "Is it really that obvious?"
"Well, since I've seen you smile a total of four times since you started, and now you're looking like you're never gonna stop smiling, it's pretty obvious," Kristen laughed. "How about details? Leave nothing out."
Elise went to the other side of the reception desk, somewhere she had never been, and sat down in a black leather office chair. For the next few minutes, the two women giggled like teenagers as Elise described the events of the previous afternoon and evening. When she had finished, Kristen shook her head and laughed, "Leave it to you to fall for the guy who's trying to sink the biggest project of your career!"
Hearing the idea spoken aloud immediately knocked the wind out of Elise's sails. It was like she'd been dreaming, and the words shook her back to reality.
Kristen did not miss the change in Elise's mood and said, "Hey, you're entitled to a private life too. So tell me again about this surfer boy's dimples."
But the light-hearted moment had definitely passed. Elise simply muttered, "Maybe later", and went into her office.
A few minutes later, she was sitting at her desk, staring at her face in a blank computer monitor when Kristen stuck her head in the door. "There's a message from Stewart on your voicemail." She started to leave before turning back and saying, "Elise, are you okay"
She forced a weak smile to her face and replied, "Sure, I'm fine. I just got caught up a little."
Kristen took a few steps closer and said, "Don't beat yourself up. Nothing wrong with having a life you know."
Elise simply nodded.
The secretary started to say something more, but then hesitated and left the office.
Elise went back to staring into the blank monitor for a few moments before turning to the phone on her desk.
After a beep, Stewart's voice said, "Elise, I just wanted to let you know the restraining order should be ready this morning. I've got a couple of friends downtown who rushed it through for me. They will serve the order as soon as it is official. What I need you to do is head out to the site and let the construction foreman know. Thanks. Bye"
The message didn't do anything to brighten Elise's mood. She tried to regain a sliver of the optimism she had felt earlier but could not.
What am I going to do? Elise asked herself.
She thought of the time she had spent with Cody. The image of his smiling face and his kindness to Penny made her want to cry. It was not the kind of crying that comes from feeling touched. This was the kind of crying that comes from having hurt someone who doesn't deserve to be hurt, someone who deserves better than to be involved with a woman who doesn't know what she wants.
For the second time in as many days, Elise decided that she needed to break it off with Cody. The two of them were just too different. Maybe it is true that opposites attract. But that doesn't mean that this attraction leads to happiness.
As she passed Kristen's desk, Elise quickly said, "I have to go to the Haight-Ashbury site."
The puzzled secretary watched as she left office.
Elise drove to the store and felt fortunate when she found parking spot just a block away. The drive over had done little to lift her spirits, but it had given her time to convince herself that she was right in ending things between her and Cody. After all, things were just going to get more complicated as time went on. Better to end it now and save problems later.
The crowd of protesters in front of the store seemed to have grown. Elise scanned the group for Cody but didn't see him. She had to admit that something inside her was glad that he wasn't there, and the breakup could be at least temporarily postponed.
"Looks like those fleas are multiplying, huh?" The construction foreman's question startled her from deep focus on the protesters.
Elise turned to Vic and replied, "They're just trying to protect their lives. Some of them have businesses that might be affected by this store. It's a free country, right?" He shrugged and looked confused. "Haven't you ever had to fight to save anything?"
The foreman smiled at her and shrugged again. "Don't matter. Heard this morning that your boss got a restraining order to keep them at least 200 yards off the property." He laughed. "Soon as any of them get closer, the cops will be here."
She watched the man leave and then looked back at the people protesting. For the first time, Elise saw them as more than just an obstacle in the way to doing her job. They just needed to be shown that the new store could be a partner in the community. Suddenly, she realized what needed to be done. Instead of focusing solely on getting the support of the city council, she needed to make an effort to get support from the neighbors of the new store.
Feeling a little embarrassed that she hadn’t thought of it previously, Elise immediately began planning a presentation to the residents and business owners of Haight-Ashbury. After spending so much time preparing for the presentation to the city council, it would be pretty easy to put together a similar one for this group. The idea brought a smile to her face and it was still there when Cody touched her shoulder.
"How's my favorite chef this morning?"
Elise turned to look and was immediately captured by his bright blue eyes and those dimples. All her previous ideas about breaking off things with the handsome young man instantly vanished. In their place were a smile, butterflies, and a feeling of happiness. The electricity she had felt when their lips touched the night before was again coursing through her body.
"What are you doing here?" She asked, trying to keep her voice sounding casual.
He handed her a large paper coffee cup and said, "I thought maybe you could use this."
Elise had to admit to herself that coffee sounded pretty good, and the delivery man wasn't bad either. The thought made her chuckle a little. Cody noticed.
"For some reason, I got the idea that you're not really a morning person," he commented. "But you seem pretty happy this morning."
Elise felt herself blush and a nervous giggle escaped from her mouth. "Get it together, Elise," she told herself. "You're acting silly."
Out loud, she said, "Well, good coffee always makes me happy, and you--" Her words were cut off by a noise behind Cody.
"He's right there!" Stewart Olson exclaimed. "I want him arrested for trespassing."
The two policemen standing next to him moved quickly over to Cody and began frisking him roughly.
Elise watched in shock at what was happening. Once she recovered, she trotted over and said, "Stewart, this is not necessary. He's a friend."
At the sound of the words, Olson spun from watching Cody and the police officers to direct his glare at Elise. "So I see," he hissed. “That's something we will need to talk about."
"He just came in to--" Elise started before being cut off.
"Miss Warren, you certainly aren't who I thought you were." Olson shook his head before continuing, "If you wish to keep your job with this company, you should be quiet."
Elise was absolutely stunned. She could not remember Stewart ever having addressed her as Miss Warren or ever having threatened to fire her. The young woman felt as though her world were being upended. She watched silently as the police led Cody out of the store and into a waiting police car.
When Elise turned away from the sight, she found Olson was watching her. "Stewart, Cody was inside th
e store to give me coffee. It had nothing to do with protesting."
He smiled condescendingly at her for a moment before replying, "Cody, is it? That's nice you're on a first-name basis with the people who are dedicated to shutting down this project."
"You don't know these people," Elise began, trying unsuccessfully to keep the pleading tone out of her voice. "They're just people who are trying to protect their livelihoods and the character of their neighborhood. They just need to be shown that Smart-Shop will be a benefit to the community." She paused to check Olson's reaction but couldn't tell exactly what he was feeling. "I want to set up a meeting with local residents and merchants to give a presentation on how the store will be an asset to the neighborhood. Much like the presentation to the city council." She paused again, feeling certain that Stewart would accept her idea. That's why his response knocked the wind out of her.
"No, I don't want you to speak anymore with these people." He looked over at her and added, "Looks like you've done more than speaking with some of them."
Elise felt as if she'd been slapped across the face and could not manage a reply.
"The only thing that matters is Smart-Shop has come to the area. If these whiny losers spent as much time working as they do fighting progress, they wouldn't have to worry about a new store taking their customers." Olson smiled. "I never thought I'd have to worry about you losing your focus like this," he stated flatly before turning to leave the store.
Elise stood there alone, staring through the glass at the front of the store without seeing anything. The image of Cody being led away in handcuffs, and the cold face of Stewart Olson as he threatened her with if you wish to keep your job with this company, you should be quiet floated around her mind.
It took her a minute to realize that she was crying.
Chapter 8
Elise felt lost. In a life where everything has been carefully planned for so long, there isn't much time to consider what to do if those plans are suddenly shattered.