Augi nodded, glanced at Oliver and then placed her plate on the table and lifted the lid to reveal a Greek dessert. ‘As I couldn’t get here until after dinner, I thought you might enjoy something from my homeland.’
‘Yum! Thanks.’
But as Lucy began to divide up the dessert she felt a sense of tension settle around them, and the conversation dwindled to a halt. She looked up to see Augi was still standing beside the vacant chair and looking intently at Oliver who’d just turned round to meet her direct gaze.
‘Augi,’ said Kate. ‘Is something the matter?’
‘I’m sorry,’ Augi said to Kate before nodding to Lucy. ‘I hadn’t intended…’
‘What?’ Kate responded with a frown.
‘To say what I’m about to say,’ she said. ‘I was going to wait, but I can’t.’ She turned her attention back to Oliver. ‘You haven’t told them, have you, Oliver?’
After a frozen second he shook his head. No one else spoke. He licked his lips. ‘No, I haven’t. I guess you are, though?’
She nodded. ‘It seems I have to. I’ve never liked hypocrisy.’
Oliver visible flinched. ‘I’m not —’
Augi raised an autocratic hand and Oliver stopped speaking instantly. ‘Save it…’ she glanced at Lucy, ‘for Lucy because she needs to hear your explanation, not us.’
‘Explanation for what?’ burst out Lucy, finding her voice at last.
‘For why,’ said Augi, ‘Oliver has moved the goal posts around community consultation.’
All eyes were on Oliver. He looked at each of them in turn, his gaze only faltering when he looked at Lucy, before turning back to Kate.
‘Your friend is correct. I’ve met with both the mayor of Kapiti and Wellington a few days ago and, subsequently, their teams have agreed to a change in the consultation process.’
‘What change?’
‘A streamlined consultation process has been approved.’
‘A… what?’ said Lucy, hardly believing she was hearing this.
‘Streamlined.’
‘As opposed to… usual, to normal, to thorough.’
Oliver’s lips tightened. ‘The council want a Wellington development I’m also working on to proceed and there were a few things uncovered about the hotel which have allowed for the consultation process to be reduced.’
‘To what?’ asked Kate in a steely voice which Lucy rarely heard from her mother. It clearly had an effect on Oliver, too.
‘Ten working days notification.’
‘And that’s passed,’ she said. ‘What else?’
’10% engagement threshold.’
‘You can’t have received that yet.’
Oliver winced.
‘You have.’
He nodded. ‘At the public meeting last Monday.’
‘But that was to the first of several,’ said Lucy, finding herself standing up.
