Small Acts
Table Twelve

Closed for Private Event

August 25, 2026 · Part 9 of 10 · 2 min

Odette didn't sleep, again, for the second time that week — except this time it wasn't dread keeping her awake, it was something more dangerous: hope.

Around nine that night, someone knocked. Faye Voss stood in the hallway outside the apartment, no folder this time, no leather-jacket armor, just a plain white envelope and an expression Odette had never seen on her before — something close to apologetic.

"I was wrong about you," Faye said simply. "I thought someone was hurting him. Turns out someone was the only person in this town actually looking out for him. I'm sorry for how I came at you."

"It's okay."

"It's not, but thank you for saying so." Faye held out the envelope. "Don't open it tonight. Come to the diner tomorrow morning, nine sharp, not six. He asked me to tell you it's important that you're not working when you see it."

Odette turned the envelope over in her hands after Faye left, the paper heavier than it should have been for whatever was inside, and did not open it. She sat with her mother instead, oxygen machine humming, and didn't sleep, and didn't mind.

Reggie called at eight the next morning, his voice smaller than she'd ever heard it.

"I need to tell you something before you get here," he said. "Coastline's been trying to buy this building out from under me for two years so they could tear it down. I was two signatures away from selling last month. I didn't tell anyone because I didn't want the staff to panic before I found something else." A pause. "I didn't know Elias owned Coastline. I swear I didn't know."

"Reggie, why are you telling me this now?"

"Because when you get here," he said, "you're going to understand a lot of things at once, and I didn't want you walking in blind."

At nine, Odette stood outside Percy's Diner and stopped cold. The front door, always propped open by six-thirty, was shut, blinds drawn, a handwritten sign taped to the glass: CLOSED — PRIVATE EVENT.

And standing beside the door, in a suit no one had ever seen him wear, was Elias Voss, holding the door open with one hand and gesturing her inside with the other.

Continue the story Part 10: Table Twelve Belongs to You →

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