Holly
Her feet froze as she stared at the picture of herself. It was grainy and not her most flattering picture by any means, but it was her nonetheless and printed around it was the name of her restaurant along with the words boycott and reproductive rights. Sighing, she ripped the picture from the light pole and glanced around. There were no more in sight, but this couldn’t be the only one. She shook her head; she knew she shouldn’t have gone on that prayer walk. Not only might she lose some tourist business, but what if whoever posted the picture here started posting them outside Courage? What if people stopped coming to Courage over this? Then it wouldn’t be just her business affected but the whole town.
Shoving the flyer in her bag, she glanced around one more time. The fear that whoever had posted the flyer was watching her and would now jump out and attack her raged through her veins. Her heart beat faster, and adrenaline spiked every sense. The streets were mostly empty right now, but someone could be watching. Someone could be peering at her through a window or hiding in the dark spaces between buildings. A shiver raced down her spine, and she pulled her coat tighter around her though there was little wind today. She kept her head down but her eyes constantly scanned the area around her for anything unusual. Anything or anyone who didn’t seem to belong. And she kept her ears open for any sound, for any crunch of leaves behind her or any slap of a footstep that was too close.
Her heart was pounding in her chest when she reached her restaurant. The thudding echoed in her ears, and she chastised herself as she unlocked the door and entered the dark room. She was blowing this out of proportion. Yes, the flyer was unfortunate, but the chances of it causing someone to attack her were small. Though there had been more crime recently, Courage was still a safe town, a quiet town, and if she lost a little business but helped save babies and make adoptive parents into happy families, then it would be worth it.
Sending up a prayer for peace, Holly began the tasks of the day, whistling as the fear slowly melted from her shoulders. She was just being silly, overdramatic. The phone on the counter rang, and Holly picked it up, smiling as she rattled off the greeting. But when silence answered her on the other end, her smile froze. “Hello? Is someone there?”
She strained to listen and thought she heard the tiniest sound of breathing, but she could have been imagining it. Holly replaced the phone and chewed on her bottom lip. It could have been a wrong number or a prank call, but she didn’t think so. So soon after the flyer was posted, the timing was too quick to be coincidental.
The front door opened and Holly flinched until she realized it was Ashley. “Whoa, you okay, boss?”
“I’ve been better. I found this hanging up today.” Holly pulled the flyer out of her purse and showed it to Ashley.
Ashley’s eyes widened, and she shook her head. “Oh, man, I’m so sorry, Holly. No one’s ever done anything like this on the other walks I’ve been on.”
“Lucky me,” Holly said, rolling her eyes. “Then the phone rang a few minutes after I opened, but whoever was on the other end didn’t say anything. Maybe it was nothing, but I don’t have a good feeling about all of this.”
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Ashley said, offering soothing reassurances like usual. “It’ll blow over before you know it.”
“I hope you’re right.” Holly took her purse back to the office to stow it, then began the daily tasks necessary to get the restaurant up and running by lunch. She’d tried offering breakfast when she first opened, but she’d stopped after only a few weeks. Not only had she been exhausted each morning after closing the night before, but most of the tourists either ate breakfast at the resort or the Waffle House down the street that specialized in breakfasts, leaving her either working the small crowd alone or paying employees more than she was bringing in. She wasn’t a fan of the late nights she often had to put in, but she did enjoy getting to sleep in now.
As she began the meal prep for the day, the phone rang again. Goosebumps erupted on her arms as she grabbed the phone. “Holly’s Hideaway, how can I help you?”
“You can leave town,” the voice on the other end said. Holly thought it was a woman, but the caller was whispering, making it hard to be sure. “We don’t want or need your kind here.” Before Holly could say anything else, the line went dead. Her hand shook as she placed the phone back on the stand, and she took a deep breath to steady her nerves. It was just a phone call, and while it hadn’t been a nice one, they hadn’t directly threatened her or the business, so there wasn’t much she could do about it anyway. But she did need to steady her hands before she resumed cutting. She didn’t want to injure herself on top of everything.
At eleven, Pierre, her head chef, appeared and took over the kitchen. Holly wandered back out to the dining area to make sure Ashley had everything ready for opening. The tables appeared prepped and the silverware, nicely bundled, filled the basket at the hostess podium. Ashley stood at the front window changing the sign from closed to open, and Holly braced herself for the lunch rush.
It didn’t come. A few regulars wandered through the doors, but hours later, they’d served fewer than half their normal customers.
Close to dinner time, Tiffany walked through the front door and blinked in surprise. “Whoa, I’ve never seen it so quiet in here. Everything okay?”
“Not really,” Holly said with a sigh as she led Tiffany to a table. “Is Israel joining you tonight?”
“Yeah, but he’ll be a little late. Why don’t you sit down and tell me what’s going on.”
Holly slumped into the seat across from Tiffany and dropped her head into her hands. “You know the last prayer walk? The one I attended?”
Tiffany nodded. Though she hadn’t made every prayer walk, she’d attended the first one and been at many since, so she understood what happened on them.
“Well, some angry lady took my picture. She used it to make a flyer encouraging people to boycott me. I found one hanging downtown this morning, but I’m sure there are more.”
Tiffany’s mouth fell open. “Do you know who she is? That can’t be legal.”
Holly shrugged. “I don’t know anything about her, and then this morning, I started getting phone calls too. There’s been three so far today though nothing was said on the first one. The second two, while not threats, encouraged me to shut down and move away.”
“That is not acceptable. You have to be able to do something.”
“What though? I mean I guess I could report it, but what are the cops going to be able to do about it?”
Tiffany tapped a finger against her lips as she thought and then her eyes lit up. “I know. Do you remember the woman who drew the names at the Valentine Dance, Sylvia Mason?”
“Vaguely,” Holly said, wondering what she had anything to do with the people harassing her.
“Well, she was raising money for the foster kids with the charity that night. She’s really active in the foster community, but she’s also a lawyer. I bet she’d be able to give you advice or maybe even draw up a cease and desist order or something.”
“Yeah, if I had money, maybe, but I don’t, and that certainly isn’t going to change if I can’t get people back in.”
Tiffany placed a hand on Holly’s arm. “She does a lot of pro bono work. You could at least ask her. Maybe if she can’t do it for free, she can give you a discount or allow you to pay once your customers come back.”
Though she thought it was a long shot, Holly nodded. “I guess it couldn’t hurt to at least ask.”
Tiffany leaned back, smiling. “Of course it couldn’t. She’s amazing, really. We’ve been working with her for some of the adoption process.”
Holly took that opportunity to change the topic. She hadn’t checked in with Tiffany on the babyfront lately, and she felt kind of guilty. “How is that going anyway?”
Tiffany’s smile spread to one that could have rivaled the brightest diamond. “Amazing. We have a date set, and in no time I’ll be getting to hold my little boy. You’ll be there, right?”
Holly reached across and squeezed her friend’s hand. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”