Page 129 of Culinary Chaos

“Ah. Post and editing.”

“Yes.” Hope smiled, her eyes twinkling. “This isn’t getting you out of the story.”

“There isn’t a story,” Angelica murmured. “Hold on.” She stood up, taking the phone with her. Hope got a brief view of some of the paintings on Angelica’s wall in her office, and the door, which Angelica was shutting. “I don’t want someone to come in while I’m talking to you.”

“But you don’t mind when you’re talking with Eva? How rude!”

Angelica let out a small chuckle. “Her call was unexpected. I was planning on calling you this afternoon.”

“It is afternoon, Ange.”

Angelica frowned as she recognized the time. “So it is.” She sat back down in her chair and put the phone against somethingso that Hope could see her without moving around like the Blair Witch Project. “The caterer dropped us as a contract.”

“Why?”

“Because the manager I had to replace didn’t take care of the situation like she should have.” Angelica’s jaw clenched tightly.

“I thought you said she was good at her job.”

“She was until about six months ago.” Angelica sighed, her lips pressing into a thin line. “Apparently the contract was cancelled three months ago, right about the time we started filming. I trusted her that she’d taken care of it, but with the transition between managers and filming, it slipped through the cracks.”

“And finding a caterer for a large event on less than a week’s notice and a reasonable budget is next to impossible,” Hope supplied.

“Exactly.”

“So you came to your first best option, and the exact person you should have come to first.”

“I…” Angelica’s jaw dropped.

Satisfaction rolled through Hope. She’d managed to take Angelica by surprise again. Laughing, Hope shook her head. “Oh the look on your face. If you’d ask, you’d get an answer, you know.”

Angelica narrowed her gaze and took a long pause before speaking. “Hope, would you cater the crew wrap party?”

“Yes.”

“For a reasonable cost.”

Laughing again, Hope nodded. “Yeah, Ange. Just send me your budget, and I’ll figure it out.”

“Thank you.”

Hope breathed into that. She loved hearing those two words from Angelica. And it was the least she could do, it seemed, whenthey were going to be spinning in each other’s circles for a while longer.

“Anytime. You should know that by now.”

“That you want to save me from my own mistakes?” Angelica’s lips quirked slightly.

“Oh now there’s something you didn’t quite say.” Hope bit her lip, debating whether or not she wanted to actually push Angelica on this.

“What’s that?”

“How is the management issue your mistake?”

Angelica’s face fell. She went from the lightness of teasing to instant dread. There was way more to this story than Hope was getting, and she wanted to know. Not because she felt like she deserved it, but because she wanted to know more about who Angelica was behind the many different masks she wore every day.

“I’m sorry if that’s too much…” Hope said.

“It’s my fault because I didn’t follow up with it. I trusted when I shouldn’t have.”