Page 144 of Culinary Chaos

“Yes.” That and other reasons she hadn’t shared, but this would be enough for today. “I’m sorry about that. I know we’re closer than that, but I couldn’t let him see it.”

“I guess it’s a good thing we’re not getting renewed then, isn’t it?”

“I think it’d be a good thing if we didn’t see each other again.” Angelica hated saying those words. She hated admitting that she was giving in to fear and letting it fester instead of pushing back and standing her ground. But she needed to just have calm again.

“That’ll be hard with press.”

“I can rearrange that.” Angelica had already done a lot of that work. She’d already wanted to put more distance between them if she could.

Hope sighed, shifting again to lean in closer and put her hand on Angelica’s knee. Her fingers were so warm, her touch firm and calculated. Angelica stared down at her fingers, the way they curled around Angelica’s bare knee, the way heat and pleasure radiated up her leg from just this simple non-sexual touch.

“This isourshow, Angel. Don’t let a bully take that away from us.”

Angelica wanted to believe that. But in the next few months, it’d be clear that there wasn’t a show. There wasn’t something for them anymore, nothing holding them together or tethering them to each other’s worlds.

“I didn’t expect this,” Angelica whispered.

“The show not being renewed, or me?” Hope moved her hand off Angelica’s knee and back into her own lap.

Angelica didn’t want to answer that question. Because she couldn’t decide which was worse. “Do you think Rex will talk to him?”

“Josef?” Hope frowned in confusion. “No, I don’t see why he would.”

“I can think of a few reasons why he would.” Angelica sighed and pressed her hands together, palms to palms and fingers tofingers. “I think it’d be best if we just went our separate ways. There’s no reason for us to meet together again.”

“So you’ve said…” Hope trailed off, looking Angelica over carefully.

That scrutinizing look was nearly more than Angelica could handle.

“In the short time I’ve known you, Angel, you’ve never been scared of anything. And I’m not understanding why you’re so scared now.” Hope reached for her again, this time her hand landing on Angelica’s forearm. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“Leanne.” The name slipped from her lips before Angelica could stop it. Hope used that magic, whatever it was, and she pulled it from her. “Leanne was my hotel manager here in Los Angeles.”

“The one who resigned and you had to replace.”

“Yep, that’s the one.” Angelica nodded. She held her breath tightly in her chest, to the point that it hurt before she let it go slowly. “About a year ago, when Josef was starting to plan for this television show, he came to visit me so we couldhash out details. As you may have noticed, he doesn’t exactly knock on doors.”

“Yeah, I did catch that,” Hope mumbled.

“Right, so he walked in on Leanne and me…”

“Angel…” Hope’s cheeks flushed as she shook her head.

Angelica couldn’t stand it. She stood up, taking a few steps across the room before turning back and crossing her arms over her chest. She didn’t even want to look in Hope’s eyes. She didn’t want to see what everyone else saw.

“The deal was that I break it off with Leanne, I brush as much of the drama under the rug as possible, and if I came out the other side unscathed and without a PR nightmare, then I could continue with the plan of being the star lead instead of a consultant.”

“He blackmailed you.” Hope stood up sharply, her lips parted in shock.

“No. It was a deal. And it was something I agreed to.”

“It’s blackmail, Angel. You need to understand that.”

“No. It wasn’t.” Angelica wasn’t going to back down from this one. “I complied. I thought Leanne was different, I thought that maybe she’d resign then and eliminate the risk of our involvement together being a PR mess to be cleaned up.”

“You thought she’d choose you.”

Angelica’s eyes watered. Why did hearing that hurt so damn much?