Page 13 of Culinary Chaos (Hotel Bombshell #1)

Chapter

Ten

“ A h, her majesty finally decides to grace us with her presence.” Josef’s voice rang through the room, and if it had been anyone else saying it, she might have snarked something off in his direction.

Angelica’s chest tightened with tension.

She was the last to arrive, and Hope, Rex, Josef, and Kyle were already seated around the large conference table that she’d dared to call home for the last two weeks.

She nodded toward Josef but ignored the others as she slid into one of the empty seats and set her iPad in front of her, pulling out the pen so she could take whatever notes she needed.

She wasn’t in charge of this meeting. And to be on the other side of the table with it, the one who had to evaluate instead of listen, was odd for her.

Not that she couldn’t do it, but she wasn’t used to it.

Angelica clenched her jaw and flicked her gaze toward Hope.

Was she feeling the same in this? Or was she protected because of Rex while Angelica was left entirely out on her own?

“Now we can really get started,” Josef said, pulling over a piece of paper. “Angelica and I thought it’d be a good idea to review and evaluate with just a few of you before we put out an evaluation to the entire crew.”

At least he’d kept her name in that and didn’t entirely take the credit for this idea. She always worked her best to make sure communication lines were as open as possible with her employees. Not that it always worked well, but at least it was an attempt.

“So that’s why you’ve been invited to this meeting. How do you think this first episode of filming went?”

The question nearly died as soon as he asked it.

It was such a cold open to conversation and discussion.

Angelica’s own tension rose again, and she could feel the room tense and barely breathe.

Everyone flicked their gaze toward her, but she couldn’t figure out if they were looking at her because they were scared of what she’d say and do or because they wanted and needed her to take control of the situation.

Rex and Hope stared at each other, then Hope dared to look directly at Angelica.

Those blue eyes were so captivating, and Angelica couldn’t force herself to look away—at least not immediately.

Hope’s lips pressed tightly together and pulled to one side before she broke their gaze and focused back on Josef, saying nothing.

Since when was Hope the silent type?

In the short time that Angelica had known her, that woman had always been willing to share her opinion, and never held back. Angelica shifted slightly in the chair, the discomfort of the silence settling into her body in a way it hadn’t in a very long time.

“No one?” Josef asked. “Nothing?”

“Ask something specific,” Angelica fired back, flicking her gaze to him.

“Did the schedule work? Was there enough prep time and closing time? Did we shoot enough scenes? Was there enough work to be done or not enough? What is missing from the show? What did we stumble on that we need to capitalize on?”

Josef squinted at her before brushing his hand out in front of him, indicating that he wanted her to continue.

She should have just stayed silent. Angelica sighed lightly, holding back as much frustration as she possibly could. “What did we discover this week that we need to do more of?” That was as good a place to start as any.

“You and I need to do more prep together,” Hope jumped in, pointing at Angelica and then herself. “We didn’t have enough time for that with this first one, but we need to make sure that we have it for the next week.”

“The one we start tomorrow, you mean?” Angelica raised an eyebrow in Hope’s direction.

“Yes.”

“Fine.” Angelica put the electronic pencil to her iPad and wrote down the note.

It wasn’t that she was opposed to Hope’s idea, or even disagreed with it, but it was the fact that she was now going to have to somehow schedule that time into her already busy calendar when they were traveling tomorrow to New Orleans for their next shoot.

“Why do you sound like you’d rather get a mammogram than spend more time with me?” Hope fired back.

Angelica felt like Hope had physically struck her.

She set the pen down gently onto the table, slowly raising her gaze to meet Hope’s.

What the hell was going on? What was the problem?

Hope didn’t usually push like that, at least not without being pushed first. Angelica swallowed, trying to figure out what exactly to say in response.

“That! That right there!” Kyle leaned forward like an excited kid chasing down an ice cream truck on a lazy Sunday afternoon. “We need more of that.”

“More of what?” Angelica and Hope asked at the same time, their attention now turning toward Kyle.

He grinned like an idiot. “That type of argument.”

“Argument?” Angelica questioned.

“Yes!” He clapped his hands together like he’d just figured out the missing piece to the puzzle.

“I couldn’t put my finger on it until now, but that’s what we need.

The other day, Hope, you came in here and you laid it on Ange—someone who’s always in charge and always in control—and you ruffled her feathers. ”

Angelica bristled at that. He wasn’t wrong, but it wasn’t exactly like she wanted to hear him call that out either.

“Remember?” Kyle asked.

Hope shook her head slowly. “I’m not entirely sure what you’re talking about.”

“With the game.” Kyle’s eyes widened with excitement. “You wanted to play a game of figuring out whose food was better. Angelica refused to play. And then you came up here to confront her about it. That. That right there is what we need more of.”

“You need us to argue more,” Angelica said, only a slight amount of disgust entering her tone.

“In essence. It doesn’t have to be a real argument, just something to play up for the cameras.”

Angelica’s lips parted in surprise, and she still wasn’t sure what to say. “Why?”

“Because viewers love the tension and the drama, and they need as much of it as they can tolerate. And quite frankly, you two are the only ones who are going to be here consistently throughout this show, so the drama needs to be between you.”

“I don’t know how I feel about that,” Hope said, her voice ringing through the room.

Angelica knew exactly how she felt about it, and that was a hard no. She had enough difficult conversations to deal with in her life, the last thing she wanted to do was attempt to manufacture more arguments for the sake of entertainment.

“Look, when we put together the episode in editing, I guarantee you that that part is going to make it in.”

“No,” Angelica said.

“Yes,” Kyle answered, giddy again. “It’s perfect. People will love it. They’ll latch on to the fact that you two struggle to get along just as much as any managers trying to work together in a beast of an environment like this one.”

Angelica clenched her fist before releasing it quickly. She couldn’t show him just how much this was affecting her or the fact that she really, really didn’t want him to do this.

“Rex,” Hope said.

Angelica jerked her head up sharply. Had Rex really actually not said anything yet? That was odd. But was Hope also trying to play on her relationship with him to try and get out of this? She couldn’t believe that Hope would do that either, but she heard all that in that one word.

“He’s not wrong, Hope,” Rex finally said, his voice a lot calmer and quieter than normal.

Angelica didn’t miss that. He talked to Hope differently than he talked to anyone else.

“This is a reality show, and we need the drama to keep it going. This isn’t a cooking show like you’re thinking. We’ve entered into a different world.”

Angelica bit back another sigh. So much for finding some help from him.

“If it’s manufactured, planned drama, then it shouldn’t matter in the long run anyway,” Josef added, his eyes locked on Angelica’s. “And it means that you can keep it clean.”

That last comment was meant for her. He knew exactly what he was saying and what he was scolding her for.

“If we can keep the drama for the cameras without creating actual drama on this side of the cameras, then I’m fine with the idea. But if it can’t be kept separate, that’s when we’re going to run into problems,” Josef added.

Angelica tightened again. She hadn’t planned on coming in here and having to run the meeting, and she hadn’t planned on coming in here and being scolded for her behavior either. She picked up the pen again and tightened her grip on it. She wasn’t even going to dignify Josef with a response.

“Not everyone gets along in the workplace, that’s normal.” Hope jumped in, her voice soft and almost caring.

Angelica met her eyes before moving them away quickly.

What exactly had been in them? Whatever it was, discomfort stole through Angelica, and she wanted nothing to do with it.

She stayed quiet for the rest of the meeting, which didn’t run smoothly.

She took several notes, though she wasn’t sure she’d go back to them ever.

By the time they were finished, Angelica was ready to escape and be done with all of them. Kyle was the first to leave, wanting to check on how packing up the equipment was going. Josef followed him out, clapping a hand on his shoulder as he said, “Job well done.”

Hope and Rex stared at each other, a silent conversation going on between them. Angelica really didn’t want to end up in the middle of that. She pushed up from the table, keeping her gaze down instead of up, snagged her iPad, and started to leave the room.

“Angelica.” Hope’s voice reached her ears.

Freezing, Angelica met Hope’s gaze. “What?”

“Got a minute?”

Why did people always ask that? Instead of just saying what they wanted to say, they always had to add in a precursor to get the conversation going.