“You knew I was setting up the Greenbelt Trust. I thought I had more time. You could have called me.” Tears roughened Sullivan’s voice. “You ate at my restaurant, and you didn’t mention… no one warned me.”
“Please continue,” the board chair said to Kia. “We apologize for this interruption.”
“We’ll talk… wait for me afterward?” Kia whispered to Sullivan.
Sullivan was not going to wait for her, but she sensed that Kia would stand there looking down on her until she said yes. She gave a noncommittal nod.
Kia walked back to the front of the room and continued her speech.
Sullivan half listened as Kia cleared her throat and resumed cooking and returned to her speech. Kia verbally stumbled.
“I was staying. Uh, saying. Um, at Taste the, um, Love Land,” she began, her voice strained, “we believe in the power of food to bring people together. Our f-food truck pod will feature food. Of course it would. Obvs.” She laughed nervously. “Um, um. It will be a culinary destitution. Destination.” The color drained from Kia’s face as a crepe slid off her spatula, landing with a wet slap on the pan.
But Sullivan couldn’t feel sorry for Kia. Kia was buying the Bois. Sullivan’s front porch looked out on the Bois. Mirepoix’s outdoor seating bordered the Bois. But more importantly, pileated woodpeckers tapped the old trees for bugs, and racoons gazed down from the branches at night. She had to do something. What? Beg Kia?We were friends.But they weren’t exactly. She should have looked Kia up. Stayed in touch.Don’t do this.
“Wait. Hold everything.” A man’s calm, reassuring voice spoke from the back of the room. “Kia Jackson is not buying the Bois.”
Sullivan whirled around.
Three white men in boxy, black suits had entered the room.
“I’m afraid you’ve left out one provision of the land trust charter.” One of the men walked to the front of the room, positioning himself in front of Kia.
He represented the Nature Conservancy. Greenpeace. The Sierra Club. He was there to save them. Sullivan hoped.
“We’re here on behalf of Mega Eats Corporation.” The man spread his hands in a welcoming gesture. “This meeting is to establish the highest bidder, right? Provided no legacy landowner claims their right to purchase land. Any legacy landowners here?”
“I am.” Sullivan dropped her head in her hands.
Sullivan felt sick. Blood was leaving her extremities to protect her vital organs.
“You can buy it at fair market rate. No bidding war,” the man said, as though he was delivering good news. “You have a week to put the funds in escrow. Are you going to buy?”
Sullivan’s fundraising hadn’t raised half the cost of the Bois. If she sold Mirepoix and her house, she still couldn’t make it.
“I can’t.” Sullivan choked out.
“The charter requires that after you vote to sell, you must sell to a legacy landowner first. If there is no legacy landowner, you must sell to the highest bidder,” the man continued, speaking to the crowd. “Clause 14b.To maximize the benefit to the neighborhood, and to eliminate the risk of cronyism.We’ve been looking at the Oakwood Heights neighborhood for a while. Did you know there isn’t an insta-dining option within a quarter of a mile of Oakwood Heights?”
“We don’t want a Mega Eats. We want Kia,” someone yelled.
“We want the food trucks.”
“We get to decide who buys.”
“And,” the Mega Eats rep said as though no one had spoken, “we can probably get Portland to put in a dedicated off-ramp. You’ll just pull off the freeway, pick up a Family Mega Pack, and be home.”
Kia had the audacity to turn to Sullivan as though Sullivanshould save her. For a second, the bit of Sullivan’s heart that wasn’t raging broke a little. She’d always wanted to beat Kia; she’d never wanted Kia to lose.
“I can up my bid,” Kia called out.
“Whatever you bid, Mega Eats will add twenty percent.”
“We didn’t advertise this sale publicly,” someone said. “How did you find out?”
“Youdidn’t, but she did.” The man stepped aside so everyone could get a good look at Kia. “Mega Eats would never have heard about it except that Ms. Jackson is an influencer. Isn’t that right, Ms. Jackson? We wouldn’t have heard about the sale except you’ve been live streaming about it for a week.”
chapter 5
