Page 27 of Culinary Chaos (Hotel Bombshell #1)

Chapter

Twenty

T he nausea hadn’t gone away yet. Angelica stood in front of the small office that they’d been given and breathed deeply, trying to catch what was left of her senses so that she could at least make it through this meeting. Everyone was supposed to be there.

Since Mountain View was so small compared to the other luxury hotels they’d worked with, they literally had a small ten by ten room to make this happen while they were there. She took another breath. When would the nausea go away? When would the headache fade into the background?

The door opened, and Hope stepped out with Eva right by her side.

Angelica faltered. She hadn’t had time to hide what she was feeling yet. Hope stopped sharply, her hand tightening on Eva’s. The look went from one of surprise that Angelica was standing so close to one of worry in an instant.

“I’m fine,” Angelica said before Hope could even ask. She glanced down at Eva and plastered a smile on her face.

“I was just taking her to the nanny,” Hope said, pointing at Eva. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.” Angelica squared her shoulders and pushed down the queasy feeling that just wouldn’t go away. She was determined it’d vanish, if only by her sheer will and nothing else. “I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

Hope nodded, lingering a second longer before she took Eva and walked away.

Angelica took the extra minute that she had before she stepped inside.

Kyle, Rex, and Josef were huddled around the small table in the room.

This was going to be tight quarters, which only made Angelica’s ill feeling intensify.

She sat down at one of the only two empty chairs in the room and kept her mouth shut.

The last thing she needed was to throw up on all of them, and it was only getting worse, not better.

She had so much that she needed to get done this week, not only for the show but for the rest of the businesses that she ran.

She couldn’t afford to get sick. Not now.

Hope was back.

When did that happen?

And she was sitting right next to Angelica, her gaze flicking toward Angelica more often than not.

Angelica at least caught that, but if anyone asked her what they were discussing, she had no idea.

She couldn’t begin to think of a topic that they needed to touch on that day, even though these meetings were starting to be very routine for her.

Kyle would talk about different scenes he wanted, Rex would add in his two cents, and Josef would agree to all of it.

But for everything that it was worth, Angelica couldn’t focus.

Finally, Hope leaned over and touched her arm briefly to get her full attention.

“What?” Angelica asked, keeping her voice down.

“You’re not okay,” Hope whispered, taking advantage of the fact that the men were distracted. “What’s really going on?”

“I think I just caught something from the flight.”

Hope squinted at her before pursing her lips and shaking her head. “You should rest while you can. Before we start filming.”

The fact that Angelica was actually considering that should have told her how crappy she felt. But she didn’t want to leave. She didn’t want them to think that she couldn’t cut it and that she couldn’t keep up with the pace they were setting.

“Angel…” Hope trailed off. “Come on.”

Come on, what? Rest? Disappear? Just walk out of a meeting that she was essential for? She couldn’t do that. Angelica turned to focus back on Rex and Kyle who were hashing out some kind of shoot with the outside views or something. Angelica hadn’t even taken a single note since she’d been in there.

Hope moved her hand away, and the warmth from her skin was gone before Angelica knew that she was missing it. She wanted it back. That had kept her steady in the last ten minutes, and she couldn’t stand to not have something to keep her grounded right where she was.

“Let’s take a break,” Josef announced. “You can show me where you want to do this opening shot.”

Angelica stayed still, melding with her seat while the three men got up and left. She expected Hope to go with them, but Hope stayed right where she was, legs crossed, leaning on the arm of the chair, and her eyes locked on Angelica’s face.

“Ready to admit defeat yet?” Hope asked.

“Yes,” Angelica answered, wincing. She rested back in her chair for the first time, finally finding herself and letting every sensation flood into her body. Now that she was focused on it, she could tell how shitty she really felt.

Hope reached up and touched her cheek with the back of her hand and clicked her tongue. “You’ve got a fever.”

“Perfect,” Angelica muttered. “Just what I needed this week.” She closed her eyes and tried to steady herself for the long walk back to her room and the fact that she was going to have to have her assistant rearrange her schedule and Lyric rearrange her travel. “I guess it wasn’t the car ride.”

“That probably didn’t help anything.” Hope hummed, but her calm presence was exactly what Angelica needed, and she was so glad that she was still there. At least for now. “Let me know when you’re ready, and I’ll walk you back.”

Why did that sound heavenly? Angelica hadn’t realized just how much she actually wanted the helping hand, or the fact that this time around she might actually need it. She wasn’t as young as she used to be, and perhaps this cold or whatever it was would take it out of her.

“Sure,” Angelica said. Before she was ready, because when would she ever be, she pushed herself up to stand. Hope was standing with her in an instant.

Hope put a hand on the small of her back and led her toward the hallway. Angelica wasn’t entirely sure how they ended up back at her room, but she fished her key out of her pocket and handed it to Hope. She couldn’t focus enough to even get it in the lock.

She sat on the edge of the bed and pulled off her jacket first. Chills started, working their way up her back and into her chest. Goosebumps lined her arms and legs, and if she wasn’t careful, she was going to end up with full body shakes.

“What do you normally take for the flu?” Hope asked, taking Angelica’s jacket and folding it over the small chair at the desk where Angelica had left her laptop earlier.

“Just Tylenol.”

“That’s it?” Hope wrinkled her nose at her.

Angelica nodded. “I don’t get sick very often.”

Hope hummed. “Stay here. I’ll be right back. I’m taking the key with me because I don’t want you to get up and fall over while I’m gone.”

That was fair. Angelica said nothing as Hope walked out of the room.

She did slowly start to undo the zipper on her heeled boots and take them off, dropping them next to the bed.

She could deal with cleaning that up later.

For now, she just wanted to lie down and melt into the blankets until she felt just a little bit better than she currently did.

She burrowed her way under the blankets and closed her eyes, sighing heavily.

She couldn’t believe this was happening.

She couldn’t believe that she was getting sick while they were filming.

They were on such a tight schedule, and now she wouldn’t be able to do anything until she could at least stand upright. Which right now would be a challenge.

The door opened, and Angelica didn’t even bother to open her eyes. She just wanted to stay right where she was, warm and under the blankets. The mattress dipped slightly, and there was a hand on her shoulder.

“Here. I brought you a drink, too.”

Prying her eyes open, Angelica looked to find Hope holding her hand out with a couple of pills in it and a small glass of water.

She hated this. She wasn’t used to anyone taking care of her, but to have Hope do it?

That was embarrassment ten times over. Usually Lyric would be around, but Angelica had given her the week off for her sister’s wedding.

Lyric would do just about anything that Angelica asked her to.

Taking the medication with a small sip of water, Angelica rested back into the pillows.

“I brought the thermometer.”

“You have a thermometer?” Angelica furrowed her brow as Hope put the device against her forehead.

“Of course I do. I have a six-year-old.”

That would generally be enough of an explanation, but Angelica was damn sure that even if she had a kid living with her she wouldn’t have remembered to bring any of that. The device beeped, and Hope stared at it curiously.

“It says you don’t have a fever.”

“Really?” Angelica frowned. “It might just be from the nausea. Happens sometimes.”

“Are you nauseous a lot?”

“Enough.” Angelica closed her eyes again. “I’ll be fine. Thank you.”

Hope still didn’t leave right away. She put her hands in her lap and stayed still. Angelica wanted her to leave now. She was embarrassed enough at having to have someone care for her, and she really didn’t need Hope to stay there any longer.

“I’ll talk to Rex and Kyle about rearranging some of the filming schedule if you’re not feeling better in a couple of days.”

“No need to worry about any of that now.” Though Angelica had already started to rework the schedule in her head. Then again, any kind of that work she did now would probably have to be redone later, because it was definitely a struggle to think. “I’ll be fine tomorrow.”

“You might think that,” Hope said, touching Angelica’s shoulder again, “but take tomorrow to rest if you need to.”

“I will.” But she knew she wouldn’t. Angelica had way too much work to take a full day off, even if she was sick. She just wanted Hope to leave at this point. She wanted to be alone and hiding where no one had to see her like this.

“Good.” Hope sighed. “Text me if you need something else. Please.”

“Just tell Josef that I had a work problem,” Angelica said, locking their gazes together.

Hope paused, confusion swimming in her eyes. “You really don’t want him to know you’re sick.”

“No.” It was a matter of pride, and whether or not Hope could understand that wasn’t Angelica’s problem. She just needed Hope to follow through with what she said she would do. Then she could deal with the consequences of the small white lie later.

“I’ll tell him that for now. But tomorrow…you’ll have to come up with a better excuse.”

Angelica swallowed hard. She fully intended to not be in this bed tomorrow—as comfortable as it was. She would be back to work and back on her feet without consequences. If she believed it, then it would happen, right?

“I’m serious about texting me. I’ll check in on you in a bit.”

“I’m not an invalid,” Angelica mumbled.

“No, you’re not. But you’re sick, and the least I can do is help you get through it. Right?” Hope didn’t wait for an answer. She stood up and left the room without another word.

Angelica shuddered, but this time it definitely wasn’t from the chills. It was from the powerful and confident way that Hope had taken control of the situation and made everything happen like it should. Or like she wanted it to, whether or not Angelica wanted it to end up this way.

She stayed in bed for another thirty minutes before she became too antsy.

Dragging herself from the bed, Angelica stripped out of her work clothes and slid into her loose pajama bottoms and tank top so she could at least be a little more comfortable.

She doubted that Hope would actually be coming back to check on her, and even then, Angelica could just text her and tell her that she was fine.

She snagged her laptop and brought it back to the bed. Within a minute, she was in her emails, sorting through some of the extra things she had to do that week, and approving the budgets that she hadn’t gotten to on their flights yesterday.

But it was so damn hard to focus.

Angelica plowed through it as much as she could, but she wasn’t able to get as much work done as she would have liked. She was just about to put the computer up when the door to her room opened. Freezing, Angelica waited to see who it was.

Hope.

She had a sad smile on her face until she glanced down and saw the computer. “I see you’re as much of a workaholic as I am.”

Angelica sighed, her lips curling upward slightly. “I have a lot of work to do.”

“There’s always work to do.” Hope sat on the edge of the bed and cocked her head to the side. “You didn’t answer my text.”

Text? What text?

Angelica reached for her phone and found it, right along with Hope’s five texts she’d sent in the last few hours. “Oh.”

“How are you feeling? Any better?”

“I’m upright.” Angelica pressed back into the pillows. “Mostly.”

Hope hummed. “I talked with Tatum, not about you specifically, but he suggested it might be altitude sickness. Have you ever had that before?”

Angelica frowned, the nausea coming back into the forefront of her mind and making it that much harder to concentrate now that she had nothing to distract her. At least working had been good for one thing, even if she didn’t get a whole lot done.

“Angel?” Hope asked, getting her attention again.

“No,” Angelica answered. “But I mostly stick to the coasts. I haven’t been to the mountains very often. Not since I was a little girl.”

Hope touched her hand lightly and squeezed. “There isn’t much to do other than leave and go to a lower altitude or just bear through it until it stops. You do need to drink a lot of water and eat some food though, which I’m sure is the last thing you want today.”

It was.

“So I’m going to get you something to eat, something light. If there’s something else you want, let me know, and I’ll make sure I can get it to you.”

Why was there a thrill running through her? Why was this sudden care and compassion from Hope more tender than Angelica had ever experienced before? Even when she’d been with Leanne they’d never been this soft with each other. Angelica nodded. “Yeah, I’ll let you know.”

“Okay. I’ll be back.” Hope squeezed her hand again. “And I’m keeping the key again.”

Angelica hadn’t even realized that Hope had taken it with her the last time.

But it wasn’t like she was going to need it, not for at least a day.

She watched as Hope left the room with only one backward glance in her direction.

Angelica had to stop herself from taking the thoughts that were racing through her mind to a dangerous place.

She had to keep her distance.

She had to keep her autonomy.

She couldn’t fall for her co-star.