Page 82 of Culinary Chaos

“Are you teasing me?” Angelica asked, leaning fully back in her seat, her eyes locked on Hope’s.

“Perhaps.” Hope’s cheeks burned. Why was she doing that? What the hell was wrong with her?

“How are your restaurants doing?” Angelica asked, changing the topic deftly.

Hope hummed and then frowned. “Honestly? I have an issue I’m trying to figure out.”

“Happens from time to time, I’m sure.”

“Yeah, if only I could figure out what the problem is. Then I could actually resolve it.” Hope stretched her legs out in front of her, pointing her toes before moving them back in. “It’s been a few months, and I still can’t get a handle on what’s going on.”

“You probably need to do some unannounced visitations and stay there for longer.”

“Probably.” Hope looked back at her. “After filming.”

“Good plan.” Angelica slid her laptop into her bag and glanced toward the gate agent. “We’re almost up.”

“Did you know we were flying together?” Hope asked.

“Maybe.” Angelica smiled at her fully this time. “I’m a producer on the show, Hope. I do have quite a bit of knowledge about what’s going on behind the scenes of my show.”

My show.

Those words rang through Hope’s head and into her heart. Angelica still didn’t see this as their show, did she? When would that change? When would they start to be on more equal footing? She really wanted to know, but she certainly wasn’t going to ask. Angelica probably wouldn’t even be able to answer that, or if she could, it’d be that it would always be Angelica’s show and no one else’s.

“Did you find a new manager?”

“Two potentials,” Angelica answered, settling back in. “One for my hotel here in LA and one for Mountain View, if they take me up on the offer. I need to do a few more interviews before I’ll officially give them the offer.”

“Haven’t heard from Tatum yet?”

“No.” Angelica shook her head. “But it’s not a bad idea to hire two and train them up in case someone else resigns or I have to fire them.”

Hope hummed. She never would have thought about that, at least not in terms of an actual plan. She’d hire when she had a need, which perhaps was a downfall in how she ran her businesses. Maybe she could learn a thing or five from Angelica in the long run.

Their conversation died down while they boarded and found their seats, but as soon as Hope settled, she couldn’t stop herself from talking to Angelica. Something about this woman intrigued her so much, and she had to know more—always more.

“How old were you when you figured out you were a lesbian?”

Angelica stilled, her eyes wide and lips parted. “That’s a bold assertion.”

“Well… tell me I’m wrong.”

“You’re not, but Hope…” Angelica looked around at the people around them. “This really isn’t the time for this type of conversation.”

“When else are we going to have it?”

“Never.” Angelica sighed heavily. “Everyone has their own story of figuring it out and coming out. It’s mine and mine alone.”

“Sorry,” Hope murmured. She hadn’t realized that would be such a personal question. She was more looking for the process that Angelica had used to figure it out—if there was one. Because the fact that she couldn’t stop thinking about kissing her, that she couldn’t stop dreaming about it, had to mean something, right?

Angelica didn’t say anything else, but she did open the window by her seat and look out of it briefly before circling back to Hope. “We won’t have much downtime in Seattle like we did in Estes.”

“No, we won’t,” Hope agreed. She’d already looked at the information they’d been sent when she had some downtime last week, and this hotel looked to be a disaster on crack. “Mountain View was a nice break from the chaos, don’t you think?”

Although it’d only introduced another kind of chaos into Hope’s world. One she hadn’t been able to sort out yet. She folded her hands together in her lap, or else she’d be tempted to reach over and touch Angelica during the flight. There was a definite divide between them now, or perhaps it was a wall that Angelica had put there on purpose.

“It was,” Angelica agreed. “At least some of the chaos.”