and freshness.
Eva sat down, glaring at the man across the table from her. “Okay, I’m here. What more do you want?”
He chuckled and leaned back in his seat. “Ah, Eva, my dear. There is so much more that I want and I’m not sure you’re ready to hear those thoughts at this point.”
“You’re Damon Kelopatros,” she pointed out.
“I’ve accepted that in my life.”
She squirmed under his amused gaze, trying to figure out how to pierce his good humor. “You’re the man who is single handedly destroying the entire waterfront on the west side of the city.”
“I see you’re an admirer of my work.”
She was stunned that he would be so blasé about the situation. “I wouldn’t exactly call myself an admirer,” she retorted, leaning forward and getting ready for a fight. “You’re destroying so many people’s way of life, their culture. You’re obliterating what makes that area special and unique. Don’t you care about things like that?”
He raised an eyebrow at her argument, unconcerned with his development reputation. “I’m creating about ten thousand additional jobs.”
She wasn’t giving in. The man couldn’t be completely impervious to all arguments, she just needed to find one that would work and convince him to not destroy the area where so many people depended on the services from the center. “The people who are already living in that community won’t be able to get to work because the streets will be changed, traffic re-routed around your site. And what’s worse, your building is going where their recreation center is currently located. There are so many services that the community depends upon that are offered in that center. There’s day care, preschool, after school activities for the teens and if it isn’t there any longer, or if it’s moved, those parents and students will be unable to replace those services easily. Especially with their work schedules.”
He was impressed with her passion, although he didn’t agree with her argument. In his opinion, there were other things more important than day care for kids. “The recreation center can be moved.”
“First of all, no one has the funds to move that center. And secondly, even if it somehow does get moved, it becomes out of reach to the people who need it the most.”
A waiter arrived and Damon ordered a bottle of white wine, then dismissed the man impatiently, enjoying himself too much to be interrupted. “I hardly think moving it three or four blocks out of its current location will eliminate an entire groups’ access to the center.”
She stared at him, amazed that he could be so out of touch with how some families survive. “Do you really know who uses that center?”
“Not really. It wasn’t my primary goal to find out. The center might have made it into the impact report, but it didn’t draw my attention.”
“Your sarcasm only digs you deeper.”
“I don’t really believe I’m digging anything, much less getting in deeper.”
“You’re actually proud of the fact that you’re eliminating an entire neighborhood’s culture.”
“And you’re actually berating me for providing jobs for thousands of additional families? How can you be so callous?”
She leaned forward, trying to make him understand what he was doing. “Because you could move your building somewhere else.”
“And your neighborhood can evolve, just like the rest of the world has to do in order to survive. What will actually happen is that the parts of their culture that are strongest will survive and the parts that are weakest will be eliminated. I can’t guarantee that the parts that are strongest are the most positive, nor can you guarantee that any other site for my building will provide the same level of access to the thousands of families that will be working within the walls of my building. All we can safely guarantee is that change will occur. How we deal with that change is up to each individual.”
Eva opened her mouth to argue against his point, but she couldn’t think of anything. He was right, but she refused to admit it. “You could move the site of the building.”
He controlled his amusement at her outrageous suggestion, but just barely. “At a cost of what? And can the families wait for the delay of the jobs the building will generate? Are you telling me that the unemployed care more about having an afterschool activity for their teen than an income that will put food on the table at night?”
She sat back and looked away, frustrated because she knew he was right and she had