Page 10 of Culinary Chaos (Hotel Bombshell #1)

Chapter

Seven

“ T hanks for coming down,” Hope said to Angelica as she slipped in through the door, a camera immediately following her.

No one had warned Hope about the heat. Not just the heat from the kitchen, which was already brutal when everything was in full swing, but the heat from all the camera equipment and all the extra people shoved into the tiny backward kitchen that she felt she could barely move in.

Sweat pooled at the small of her back, and she was fairly certain that if she left this room, she would reek to high heaven.

Maybe that was the wrinkle in Angelica’s nose.

Hope and Antonio had been working their asses off, a little competition that she’d designed to show him he sucked at cooking and that she was actually right.

Two could play at games, but only one could win.

And Hope needed to make sure that Antonio understood his limits. And quickly, because she only had two more days with him in this kitchen, and if he didn’t figure out that he couldn’t cook worth shit in the next hour, she was going to have to fire him.

Angelica raised her eyebrows at Hope, expecting some sort of explanation.

“Antonio and I did a little test, and we need you to be the judge.” Hope snagged the two plates and set them on the counter in front of Angelica. “So… you get to reap the benefits of our little competition.”

“Benefits?” Angelica asked, flicking her gaze straight to Hope’s. That look wasn’t only surprise—it was filled with something else.

Hope found herself leaning in slightly, lowering her voice, and wishing on all things holy that there wasn’t a damn camera watching their every move. “Yes, lunch for you and a win for me.”

“Well, you’re certainly confident, aren’t you?” Angelica’s lips twitched slightly, but they didn’t move into a smile. “It’s your job to take care of the kitchens, Mrs. Lawrence. I trust you know how to run them.”

“Oh, I do.” Hope slid back slightly. “I just thought that you could be the judge.”

Angelica let out a little breath, her lips slightly parted, and again she was looking down at the plate like she’d just smelled something disgusting. “Run your own damn kitchen.”

Angelica spun on her toes and stalked out.

Hope gripped the edge of the counter, leaning on it heavily.

She was lost in the wake of whatever that was.

She’d never been so put in her place before, so shoved into a corner with no room to move or make her own way.

And yet Angelica had done it in two seconds flat without Hope even seeing it was coming.

She was so much better at reading people than that—she knew she was.

“Well then…” Hope straightened her shoulders and stretched out her neck. She needed a new plan of action as quickly as possible, because this was one of five filming days and she’d just wasted a good chunk of time. “We’ll let the servers pick which one is best.”

Missing only a beat or two, Hope set up the backup plan to her little competition.

And like the true chef she was, she won.

Antonio threw down his towel and stormed out the back door, a quick kick in the proverbial balls for him that Hope wasn’t going to play into.

He needed to understand that his skills weren’t up to par.

Hope set up the kitchen to start cooking her new recipes, a short and condensed menu that would be easy for them to learn before they started to add things to it. She’d already planned for that in the long run.

The unsettled anger continued to gurgle inside her, growing stronger and stronger each minute that passed as she ruminated on Angelica’s reaction.

They were a team, weren’t they? They were supposed to work together to fix this hotel, not separately.

They were co–stars, not just two employees who never talked or did anything together.

The director called cut and the crew started to break apart, and Hope was done.

She undid the top three buttons on her chef’s coat, finally letting the cool air touch her skin, but it wasn’t enough.

How dare Angelica talk to her like that, as if she was less than.

It was so different from the way they had started this hotel fix.

They had worked toward figuring out the answers together.

But this?

Fuck this.

Hope stormed out of the kitchen and made her way straight up to the conference room.

She had absolutely no doubt that Angelica would be sitting on her throne and ordering people around.

Hope clenched her jaw as she grabbed the handle on the door and shoved it open.

Her eyes locked on Angelica’s sky-blue ones, and the Ice Fairy was shocked.

How many people dared to barge in on this woman without knocking?

Well, Hope might very well be the first one, but she wasn’t going to back down. Not now. Not when she had something to say and she knew that Angelica needed to hear it.

“I thought we were doing this together!”

“Excuse me?” Angelica’s voice cracked, her gaze flicking to somewhere Hope couldn’t see.

But she had tunnel vision. And all she could focus on was Angelica in her seat behind the large conference table and the iPad sitting in front of her. There was nothing and no one else in the room as far as Hope was concerned.

“You call me in here to plan how we’re going to work together to fix this hotel from hell and then you just throw it back in my face that it’s my job?

What happened to collaboration? What happened to communication?

” Hope leaned over the table, her sweaty palm planting on it and sliding unexpectedly.

She managed to catch herself and right her body.

Angelica huffed, sliding to stand up to her full height. Hope matched it, inches taller even with Angelica in heels. Two could play at this game, and Hope needed Angelica to learn a lesson—she wasn’t someone who could be walked all over.

“We are working together, Mrs. Lawrence.” Angelica kept her hands to the side, her lips pursed as she glared daggers.

“You’re in charge of the kitchens and the staff there, and I’m in charge of the management and rest of the staff.

By comparison, your job is far smaller than mine. You know what you’re doing, don’t you?”

Hope’s voice caught in her throat, and she had no comeback for that. Of course she knew what she was doing. Angelica knew that, didn’t she? She wouldn’t have gotten this job if she didn’t have the skills to do it.

“So do your damn job.” Angelica clenched her fist against her side, her jaw clenching tightly. “I shouldn’t need to babysit someone who claims to be a professional chef.”

“I’m doing my job,” Hope threw back at her, but even as the words left her lips, she knew they were weak.

“Are you? Or are you up here complaining to me because I didn’t want to play your stupid little game?” Angelica shook her head slowly. “We’re not here to have fun, Mrs. Lawrence. We’re here to save jobs and livelihoods. Get that through your head or you’re never going to save Matlock Manor.”

Hope clenched her jaw tightly, the muscles aching already.

She had come in here to give Angelica a piece of her mind, not to be scolded like a toddler who had broken all the China in the cabinet.

She breathed heavily, staring Angelica down.

The silence permeated the entire room. Hope finally looked around, finding camera after camera turned toward them, and the boom from the sound operator hanging over their heads.

Tears welled in her eyes, but she blinked them back.

Hell if she would give Angelica that satisfaction.

This wasn’t about some stupid game, and if Angelica couldn’t see that, then Hope wasn’t sure she wanted to work with her any longer.

This was about the two of them and finding a way to work together to actually do something good for these people, for Antonio. But as much as Hope tried to say those words, they wouldn’t leave her lips. They clogged up in her throat, making it hard to breathe and swallow.

She stumbled a step closer to Angelica, who stayed put, as if she had been expecting it.

Hope breathed in deep, getting the full scent of Angelica’s subtle perfume.

Would she have noticed it before if she weren’t standing this close?

Outside of the kitchens of course, because in them, all Hope could smell was whatever was cooking.

Hope’s lips parted, and she looked down at Angelica’s mouth, finding the muscles there tight with tension and anger. How much had her own anger inflated Angelica’s? And at this point, were they both just mad to be mad?

“I’ll respect you a whole lot more if you just do your job,” Angelica said, her voice low and quiet. Was she whispering or was she just threatening it?

Hope stepped back, trembling as that anger burbled its way up into her chest again. That was an accusation. And Hope didn’t miss it. Angelica didn’t think that she was doing her job, and that meant that Angelica was tempted to step in and take over for her. What the hell was up with this woman?

Or was it because Hope was a woman? Was it because Angelica had twenty years on her and clearly had a chip on her shoulder from something that Hope had no idea about. Saying nothing, Hope turned on her toes and stalked out of the conference room, slamming the door behind her for good measure.

She was still pissed.

And she needed Angelica to be acutely aware of that fact.

Because if she wasn’t, then what had been the entire point of that?

Grinding her teeth, Hope skipped the elevator and took the steps rapidly. She descended to the basement where the kitchen was and stood in the center of the room as everyone who was still there cleaned up. That anger was so strong. It was impossible to resist.

“You can all go home,” she said loudly, making sure that every single person in the room heard her. She might regret this decision later, but her present self was going to live into it. “I’ll clean it up.”

“You sure, Chef?” Antonio called.

“Absolutely.”

She waited, chomping at the bit, while the kitchen cleared out.

As soon as she was alone, Hope ripped off her microphone, turned it off and threw it onto the counter.

They had left the kitchen exactly as she’d found them in it.

Messy and in the process of being cleaned.

Hope gripped the edge of the counter, her knuckles turning white from how hard she squeezed.

“Damn it!” she shouted into the empty room, her voice reverberating.

Growling, Hope snagged the closest pot and threw it onto the floor. The clanging noise hit something in her that the curse hadn’t. Satisfaction. She picked up another pot and threw it, savoring the pain it must feel as the sound ricocheted through the room and straight into her heart.

It felt so good.

She did it again and again, smirking slightly when she tipped over an entire container of silverware. The chinking brought the exact release that she was looking for. She shivered as she breathed out slowly, calming her racing heart.

What had she honestly expected walking in there like that?

And the fact that she’d completely forgotten that everything was being recorded?

Ugh. What would Rex think when he saw that?

She was embarrassed by her behavior. Shamed by it.

She should have done better, and Angelica was right about that.

Hope was there to be a boss, not a follower, and she’d been having far too much fun just screwing around.

“Hope…” Rex’s voice surprised her in the empty kitchen.

She frowned, staring down at her toes. Her cheeks burned from the embarrassment that she didn’t want to feel, which only intensified the feeling. “Who sent you in here?”

“Josef.”

That would figure. She rolled her shoulders, huffed out a breath of air, and looked up at him. “I hate her.”

“She’s not easy to get along with.” He stepped around the kitchenware that littered the floor and pulled her closer by her belt.

In an instant, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

Hope melted into him. She pressed her face into his shoulder and neck, allowing the tears to flow freely this time.

“She warned me she was a bitch,” Hope said with a wry laugh as she clung onto him. “I didn’t believe her.”

“You should have.” Rex rubbed his hands up and down her back and held her. “What happened?”

“It doesn’t matter.” Hope sniffled, staying in the safety of his embrace for a little bit longer before pulling away and wiping her eyes. “She was right.”

“Don’t let her hear that.” Rex laughed. “We’ll never hear the end of it.”

“I doubt that,” Hope muttered. “Besides, she already knows, and that’s the worst part about it.” Sliding her hands against her hips, Hope stared at the mess she’d made. “Are they going to use that footage?”

“Don’t know.” Rex shrugged. “I can talk to Josef about it, if you want me to.”

Hope shook her head. “No, don’t. I don’t need any more special privileges than I already have.”

“Special privileges?” Rex seemed confused by that.

Was he really that oblivious? She knew without a doubt that half of the crew was thinking she just got this job because of him and not because of her special skillset.

And with what she’d just pulled? They’d all be right.

She wasn’t the right person for this job.

She couldn’t handle the Ice Fairy . Hope rolled her eyes at that thought as she bent down to start picking up the pots and pans.

“The crew can do that,” Rex said.

“Nope.” Hope sighed heavily. “I need to do it.”

“You sure?” he asked.

“Yeah.” She bolstered herself. This would be her punishment for her obnoxious behavior. She needed to get better control of herself. And she needed to do her job better than she was. “Why don’t you, Eva, and me find someplace to get ice cream tonight? I could use something sweet and bad for me.”

“That’s what you have me for.” Rex was back standing next to her, lacing their fingers together as he planted a kiss onto her cheek.

As amusing as his comment was, she wasn’t in the mood for it.

And he knew that because of her lack of reaction.

Rex kissed her again, but this time it wasn’t in a teasing manner. “I’ll let you be for now.”

“Don’t let anyone in here, would you? I need the quiet.”

“Done,” he answered, a sad smile on his lips. “And for the record, Hope, I know you can do this. I don’t need anyone to tell me otherwise.”

He might not need that.

But she did.