Page 93 of Culinary Chaos

“If you fuck this up, you fuck all of us over.”

“I won’t do that.” Angelica crossed her arms and glared at him. “You know I won’t.”

“Then what the hell are you doing with Hope?”

“Absolutely nothing.” Again, she clenched her jaw tightly, breathing deeply as she strove to keep herself as even-keeled as possible. “You were the ones who were pushing her beyond her capacity tonight. This isn’t exactly a stressless job, and Pier 87 is one of the worst for the kitchens.”

“Of course it is.” Josef looked up at her. “You were both lulled into thinking they’d all be as easy as Mountain View.”

Angelica snorted. “You’re impossible. Do you always think that women can’t just do their fucking jobs? Or is it always about finding the faults in us to make yourself feel better?”

Josef shook his head at her, eyes wide at her audacity. She’d called him out on his shit before, but this time felt different. Their relationship had been fractured since he’d discovered she and Leanne had been together, and it had never gotten better. They’d continued to communicate and work together because they had to, but that was it.

“Just do your damn job, Ange. Leave the rest of it to me.” Josef threw that last part at her as he walked out of the office, leaving the door wide open.

Angelica sighed, but she kept her body straight and tense. Just what the hell was going on with everyone here? This was supposed to be the second to last episode, and it was like the tension had skyrocketed and everyone’s stress levels were through the roof.

Still, she didn’t think she was wrong.

Hope deserved better.

And she would fight tooth and nail for that to happen.

Hope had seemed so crushed when she’d come into Angelica’s workspace earlier, begging for help. Desperate to just survive the night. Angelica glanced at her desk and lefteverything as it was. She didn’t need anything else that night. She needed to give it up and be done with it all for a while.

A break.

Walking out of the office, she shut the door behind her and locked it. She didn’t need anyone else going in there to see what she was doing and what she’d been working on. And knowing Josef, he’d absolutely pry. It was a good thing she didn’t have anything on there that would make her guilty. She was far more careful than that.

She pushed the button on the elevator and closed her eyes as she waited. She needed a hot shower and to make the rest of the world disappear for a few hours. Maybe a run would do her some good. She hadn’t had one of those in weeks at this point. That’s what the problem was. Angelica, with her new plan in hand, stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for her floor.

When the elevator doors opened, she froze.

“Hope…” she trailed off.

“I was hoping to find you.” Hope bit her lip and stepped back, letting Angelica step out and into the waiting area.

Angelica said nothing, not wanting to tip off or push Hope into saying something that she didn’t want to talk about. But her muscles were weary, her feet hurt, and she was exhausted after that confrontation with Josef.

“Thank you,” Hope said, reaching for Angelica’s hand.

Angelica pulled away, staring at Hope’s fingers before she looked back up into her face. Hope seemed confused, and Angelica understood why. Normally, she would have let Hope touch her. But not now. Not when Josef was no doubt watching, not when she’d been called out so blatantly for once again breaking the rules and doing something that wasunnatural.

“I just…” Hope stopped. “Thank you for helping me tonight.”

Angelica nodded. “Well, I didn’t kill anyone, so that’s a bonus.”

Hope’s lips curled upward briefly, and she again reached for Angelica’s hand. Angelica took a full step to the side to put even more space between them.

“They want us to argue more,” Angelica said, trying to give Hope the short version of the argument she’d just had.

“I know. Rex was… I don’t know if you saw him, but he was trying to get me to push you tonight.”

She swallowed hard, trying to keep her opinion of Rex to herself. Hope’s marriage was her own, and she couldn’t step into that hornet’s nest.

“But I didn’t want to.”

“We need to,” Angelica fired back, taking another step and putting even more distance between them. “We need to get the ratings up, otherwise the show’s going to be cancelled before it even gets off the ground.”