Page 63 of Culinary Chaos

Angelica raised an eyebrow at her, automatically crossing her arms and then waiting for Hope to continue.

“I’m going to give you two options, neither of which you’re going to like.” Hope ran the palms of her hands up and down her thighs. Nerves tangled with excitement, and she wasn’t quite sure what to do with any of it. She waited another beat, expecting Angelica not to respond at all, and when there was still silence, she continued, “You can either go to the doctor, or we can have one come here, and you can shoot part of this episode with me.”

Angelica scoffed loudly.

“Oh, hold that thought.” Hope put her finger out to stop Angelica from saying anything. “Because there is one more option that you can choose.”

“And?” Angelica asked, her voice crackly and hoarse.

“You can stay in this bed, be sick, and I’ll shoot the entire episode without you. I’ve already talked it over with the guys, and we’re looking at ways to rearrange the schedule.”

“You’re going to cut me from my own show?” Angelica sighed heavily, her lips thinning.

Hope hated this, but it was nice to see Angelica actually thinking about the options. If she was truly up to par, then she’d be pushing back on each one. Hope was sure of that. She wantedthatAngelica back. Not this woman who was only half here and probably hadn’t showered since the day they’d arrived. Maybe this would motivate that too.

“You have your choices,” Hope added, not wanting to push on what she’d said for fear that Angelica would find the cracks in her argument, and there were so many of them. She’d pushed the truth into something that wasn’t even present in this room atthe moment. “Doctor and filming or you just stay in bed while I take over.”

Hope was betting that Angelica’s control freak mentality was going to take over and that she wouldn’t let Hope run the show without her—which Hope absolutely didn’t want to do.

“You’re blackmailing me.”

“Not really,” Hope answered. “I’m just giving you two very clear options. Neither of which you want to do.”

Angelica sighed heavily. “Fine. Call the doctor.”

“Perfect.” Hope pointed at the cup of water. “Drink that, and I’ll go make the call.”

As soon as she stepped out of the room, Hope grinned. She leaned against the door and sighed in relief. It had worked. She nearly couldn’t believe it, but here she was, with the exact answer she’d wanted.

Talking with Tatum, it didn’t take long to find a doctor who could come and visit Angelica. And when Hope brought her into the room, she was glad to see that Angelica had actually gotten up and drank the water. That was at least a good start. But Hope wasn’t happy to see that Angelica was going to be forced to lie in bed for the next hour hooked up to an IV.

“The fastest way to get over it is to go to a lower altitude.”

Angelica glared at the doctor, full-on glare. Hope had to hide her laugh behind her hand. She hadn’t anticipated that the doctor would be telling Angelica the one thing that Hope had tried to avoid which was to keep Angelica from shooting.

“That’s not possible,” Angelica said, her voice far firmer now than it had been twenty minutes ago. She’d been much softer when it was only her and Hope in the room together.

“Your choice,” the doctor said. “I’ll be back in a bit. Don’t take that out.”

When she was gone, Hope sat back on the bed and looked Angelica over. “Altitude sickness.”

“It sounds made up.” Angelica glared, but it wasn’t focused on Hope, which was a good thing.

“Everything’s made up, in one way or another, if you think about it.”

“I bet you’re enjoying this.”

“Hardly.” Hope sighed. “About filming…”

“I’m not leaving.”

“I never thought you would. What I was going to say is that I think we should focus a little more on the kitchens this time around. I was going to talk to Tatum about adding in catering for sure and then perhaps focusing on getting more weddings here during the summer. I can handle that since it’ll fall under events which is partially my job.”

“But also mine,” Angelica added.

“Yes, also yours.”

Angelica seemed to calm down by that agreement. Hope stared at Angelica’s hand where the IV was pressed into her skin. This was a hail Mary, but God she hoped it worked. She needed Angelica back, the way she was before so they could do the things they needed to do.