Page 5 of Culinary Chaos (Hotel Bombshell #1)

Chapter

Four

“ H ow was your flight, Ms. Shields?” Lyric asked as she pulled away from the curb.

“Good.” Angelica had her face down and focused on her phone. She had a slew of emails, phone calls, and texts that she needed to answer. Luckily, Lyric understood how she worked and wouldn’t be offended if Angelica didn’t give Lyric her full attention.

One of the emails was titled “resignation.” Angelica’s stomach dropped.

She clenched her jaw as she glanced at the name and sighed.

She’d known it was likely coming, but ultimately she still didn’t like it.

She opened the email to find a very formal letter.

Resignation effective in two weeks, at her star hotel.

It’d been six months since she’d stepped foot inside that hotel, but she was still in regular contact with her managers.

Everything there was going well, so she hadn’t seen a need.

Angelica closed her eyes and sighed. The last thing she wanted to do was hire a new manager while she was in the throes of filming a brand-new show.

How would she even manage it? She’d be flying back and forth any chance she got, and she’d have to temporarily bump up the pay of the assistant manager who was going to take on a lot of the tasks and work in the meantime.

Fuck, this was just a mess.

“Ms. Shields?” Lyric asked.

“I’m sorry, what?” Angelica drew her gaze back to Lyric as she got onto the highway.

“Were you able to eat dinner? Did you want to stop and get something before we head to the hotel?” Lyric’s gaze met Angelica’s in the rearview mirror for a brief second before she focused back on the road in front of her.

“No, let’s just go to the hotel. I don’t have much of an appetite after this email.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Angelica read the email over again. Leanne had wanted more responsibility, but Angelica hadn’t given it to her.

Her curse of micromanaging and control was coming back to haunt her now.

Especially because she really didn’t have anyone set up who could do the interviews for her.

She brushed her thumb and forefinger over her lips and looked out the window.

“Everything all right?” Lyric asked.

“Just got a letter of resignation. I don’t suppose you have work experience in hotel management, do you?”

Lyric laughed. “You know I don’t.”

“Pity. I could use a hard worker like you in all parts of my life.”

“You have me,” Lyric answered, her voice far softer than it had been before.

Angelica would have to watch out for that one. She’d pegged that Lyric was queer, and she’d pegged that Lyric had a crush on her. But she’d never made a move in that direction. Then again, in the last six months, she hadn’t exactly been looking for romance since her forced breakup.

But this resignation sealed the deal on that, didn’t it?

Leanne wasn’t just leaving her life as her girlfriend, she was leaving her world as a business. Who was she kidding? This resignation wasn’t because Leanne had wanted more responsibility. It was because Angelica had ended it swiftly, and she’d broken both of them in the process.

It was her own fault. She should have known better than to date her employee.

And Josef had made his point clear. He wouldn’t work with her if she didn’t clean up the PR disasters that could come her way.

Being a lesbian wasn’t the issue. It was the fact that she played fast and loose with the rules sometimes.

Angelica hit reply on the email and typed quickly.

Leanne,

I’ve received your letter of resignation, and I thank you for all the time and work that you put into making The Riviera Retreat what it is today. I will schedule a time with you and Aubrey tomorrow to talk about transition items.

A. Shields

She’d almost written Ange but she’d stopped herself.

She needed to be professional. Leanne hadn’t crossed the boundary into personal since they’d broken up, and Angelica needed to respect that.

She had enough problems to deal with. She didn’t need to add a new one into the mix. Well, not that this one was new.

It took them thirty minutes before Lyric pulled up at the hotel. The photos the Matlocks had sent didn’t do the hotel justice. Matlock Manor looked run down and on its last legs.

“This is it?” Angelica asked.

“Yes, ma’am. I’ll make sure your things get to your room.”

“Thank you,” Angelica said as she stepped out of the vehicle. She wasn’t more than ten feet into the lobby when Josef found her, a worried look crossing his rounded face as his dark bushy eyebrows drew together. “What’s wrong?”

“We have a meeting with the Matlocks. Now.” He glanced at his watch and then nodded his head to the right. “In the conference room.”

Angelica was surprised they even had one. She followed Josef curiously. They’d had several Zoom calls with the Matlocks already, and she knew they were going to be a tough couple to handle. Then again, Angelica had worlds of experience on them. When she wasn’t fucking things up—literally.

They stepped into the conference room, and a chill raced across Angelica’s skin. It was cold in here, way colder than it was in the lobby. She nodded toward the Matlocks and smiled at them.

“Mr. Matlock. Mrs. Matlock.” She shook each of their hands before settling into a seat. She was going to let Josef run this, since he knew what it was about. “It’s good to meet you in person, finally.”

“You as well, Angelica,” Mr. Matlock said.

The sign of disrespect hit her squarely in the chest. She’d used salutations to show respect, and he had completely disregarded that. Still, she wasn’t going to comment on it unless she had to.

“You had some questions you wanted us to answer,” Josef said, sitting next to Angelica.

“A few.” Mrs. Matlock looked like she’d just eaten something really sour.

Angelica kept her eyes on the woman. Which one of them was going to be the bigger problem?

It was difficult to size them up over video and phone calls, so now was the time to get a real sense of who these two people were.

“Your crew is taking over the hotel. We don’t have any room for guests. ”

Angelica tightened, but she managed to keep her face as bland as possible.

“We’re all staying here, yes. That was part of the initial agreement and contract.

It reduces our costs and gives you a boost of being full and having the experience of what it’s like to need to function with customers.

” She wanted to add that the customers were employees so they’d be a whole lot more forgiving than regular people staying there, but she kept that thought to herself.

Now wasn’t the time to start picking at them.

At least not yet.

“You can also expect the restaurant to be full for the opening and closing nights of filming. We’ll make sure that the seats are filled with hungry people and that you can manage to serve them all without causing a scene.

” Had she said that out loud? The look on Josef’s face told her yes, and she wasn’t going to stop now.

“This is what you agreed to, and we’re going to deliver on it.

You need our help to fix your hotel and rectify the mistakes you made.

You can either accept that help or not.”

Mrs. Matlock huffed sharply. “And where do you suppose we should put the actual paying customers?”

“After the show airs, you should have plenty of them to figure that out.”

“That won’t be for months.”

“You’re right.” Angelica raised her chin, staring down her nose at Mrs. Matlock. “It’ll be quite some time before the show airs, but there is press that will happen before that, and if you do what we tell you to do, you might not need the show to boost your revenue.”

Angelica looked to Josef. She had thought at one moment he would take charge of this conversation, but she’d bulldozed her way right in there, hadn’t she? She should have known herself better than that.

“What other questions do you have that can’t be answered in the briefing tomorrow?” Angelica asked.

The silence was loud, and before either one of them could answer, Angelica pushed her agenda forward.

“Right, then we’ll do the briefing in two days when Mrs. Lawrence arrives and we can talk to everyone about the plan of action going forward.

” She flicked her gaze toward Josef. “Do you have anything you wanted to add?”

“No, I think you about covered it.”

Angelica nodded toward him, and then she stared at the Matlocks until they got up uncomfortably and left the room.

Angelica sighed heavily, relaxing into the chair a bit more now that they were out of the way and gone.

She really should have known that she’d be dragged into something as soon as she arrived.

“How was the flight?” Josef asked, his voice far softer than it had been before.

Why did people always seem to ask that? Angelica wasn’t a fan of small talk to begin with, but she’d now had that question posed twice in a short period of time, and she had no answer to give.

It was a flight. They took off, they landed, and she arrived.

What more could a person possibly want from that question?

“Fine,” she said, knowing that was the most basic answer she could give in response and get away with it. There was a knock on the door, and Lyric popped her head in, a smile on her lips.

“I have your key, Ms. Shields.” Lyric set the small plastic keycard on the table in front of Angelica. “You’re in room 504, and I put your bags just inside the door for you.”

“Thank you, Lyric.” Angelica took the keycard and ran her fingers over the edges.

Without another word, Lyric left the room.

Why couldn’t all people be like that? Give her the information that she needed and leave the rest alone.

Angelica sighed again, looking directly at Josef. “Have they been bugging you all day?”

“Most of it.”

“Sorry I couldn’t be here sooner, then.”

“Be glad you weren’t.” Josef eyed her carefully. “And how is Leanne?”

Angelica tensed. She clenched her jaw hard as she raised her gaze to meet his. “She resigned today.”

“Pity. I’d hoped you two would be able to figure out how to work together without drama, but I suppose this is for the best.”

Angelica swallowed hard. She wasn’t sure about that, but she didn’t exactly have another choice, did she?

“We need to make sure that we get this project off the ground this time. We can’t afford any more delays.”

“I’m well aware.” Angelica started to move the keycard back and forth between her fingers. It was the only thing calming her racing nerves right now. “We’ll get there.”

“We will.” Josef nodded at her. “I’m going to make sure that it happens.”

Was that an unveiled threat or simply a statement of assurance? She wasn’t sure, and she wasn’t about to ask for clarification either. She’d be able to determine what Josef really thought of the situation in the next few days.

“I need you to play nice with Hope Lawrence.”

“What makes you think I won’t?”

“Because I know you.” Josef eyed her carefully. “And you know you. Hope is our last hope, ironically enough. We need her to stay in order to film.”

“I know what’s at risk.” Angelica tensed, the muscles in her shoulders and back hurting, they were so tight. “Mrs. Lawrence and I met in LA before I flew out here, and we’ve already begun working on the plan of action. It’s all going well, so far.”

“Well, that’s good to hear.” Josef put his hand flat on the table. “Because we’re about to meet with Rex and Kyle to discuss the scenes we’ll be shooting.”

“Now?”

“Yes.”

There never was a break, was there? Angelica should have known better. It would be a long time before she could step under the spray of the water and clean off the gunk from traveling, and even longer before she could slide under the covers in her new home for the next two weeks.

“All right.” Angelica pulled out her iPad and set it up. If they were going to have these discussions, then she was going to need to take notes. She didn’t have the brain power to remember everything they were going to throw at her in the next hour or two.

“One other thing,” Josef added, making sure that she was paying attention before continuing, “Rex has Eva.”

“Eva?” Angelica furrowed her brow in confusion. “His daughter?”

“Yes.”

“What difference would that make?” Angelica was thoroughly confused now. “Will she be in the meeting?”

“Yes. The nanny they hired couldn’t come until tomorrow, and we’re throwing this meeting on him. She’s six so I wanted you to be warned.”

“Warned…” Angelica trailed out the word. “Warned why?”

“I wasn’t…” Josef stopped, contemplating his words. “We weren’t sure how you felt about kids.”

Angelica needed to choose her words wisely. She took the time to find them. “Because I don’t have any?”

“Well, yes, and because… well, you don’t seem like the type of person who would like a six-year-old just hanging around.” Josef looked down at his fingernails as if this conversation and the intensity of Angelica’s stare were making him feel uncomfortable.

Good, he should.

“So you made the assumption because I’m fifty-five years old and don’t have any children that it must be because I don’t like them.” Angelica narrowed her gaze at him. “Would you make the same assumption if I was a man?”

The silence spoke volumes.

When he didn’t answer, Angelica hummed. “That’s what I thought. I don’t have children because I made a choice to focus on my career, and I’ve never found someone to have children with. It has nothing to do with whether I like them or not.”

“Ah.” Josef seemed thoroughly scolded, but the conversation shifted when the door opened loudly.

A little girl clung to her father’s hand.

She looked exactly like her mother. There would be no mistaking that this was the daughter of Hope Lawrence.

They had the same rounded face, high forehead, the same fluffy dark, almost-black hair that curled slightly but looked more wild than tame.

They had the same bright blue eyes, though this girl’s were a whole lot bigger than Hope’s.

Angelica’s heart pattered sharply as she looked up to make eye contact with Rex. There was some of him in the girl too, though definitely not as much.

“Kyle?” Angelica asked.

“On his way,” Rex said with a tight smile. “She won’t be loud, I promise.”

“Why does everyone think I hate kids?” Angelica rolled her eyes and shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “It’s as though you would think I was the wicked witch of the west instead of just an Ice Fairy.”

Rex and Josef laughed at that, which was exactly what Angelica had been going for. Break the tension now and maybe they wouldn’t have to deal with it later. They had work to do, and she needed to focus before her weary mind decided to give out for the night.