Page 50 of Culinary Chaos (Hotel Bombshell #1)

Chapter

Thirty-Nine

“ A re you ready for a service run through tonight?”

Hope started at Angelica’s voice. Something about last night had been off, and all she’d wanted to do was to help, but Angelica had pushed her out even more.

She certainly hadn’t expected Angelica to come down to the kitchen randomly.

She glanced toward Kyle who didn’t seem surprised at all.

She sighed. That was a massive problem that really needed to be solved.

Why he was the director instead of Rex was beyond her, but it needed to be changed.

“Absolutely.” Hope gave Angelica a smile worth a thousand words as everyone around her continued to work and prep for lunch and dinner service.

They were doing a soft run for lunch with the new menu items and a hard run for dinner, which would actually be filmed so they didn’t look like complete fools.

Not that Hope thought they would. This crew understood what was happening.

“Good.” Angelica paused by the edge of the counter, her hand resting on it. She looked into Hope’s eyes, searching for something.

Were they supposed to have more of a conversation?

An argument?

Hope again glanced toward Kyle, but she wasn’t given anything. Not one hint as to what was supposed to be happening. “How’s training going?”

“Not half as bad as expected.” Angelica clenched her jaw tightly, looking around the kitchen as though someone was going to jump out and knife her right there. What was she so scared of?

Hope wanted to reach out and touch Angelica’s hand, soothe whatever discomfort she was feeling, but with people in the room and the cameras on, she was also pretty damn sure that Angelica wouldn’t appreciate the sentiment.

“I’d like Conrad to be down here tonight, if that’s okay. He needs to understand how this part of his business functions.” Angelica’s lips pulled tight, extra lines forming right around the edges of them.

Hope had to work hard to raise her gaze back to Angelica’s eyes. “What do you want him to do? Because if he’s down here, then he’s not going to be standing in the middle of the kitchen and in the way.”

Angelica winced, barely. Would anyone else have noticed it? Hope kept her watchful gaze on Angelica, needing to make sure that they were all on the same page.

“Teach him what an executive chef and owner of a restaurant would do.” Angelica locked her gaze on Hope’s. “You should understand that role.”

Why did that seem like such an attack? Hope furrowed her brow and straightened up slightly, her defenses coming into place even if she didn’t necessarily want them to. She wanted to know what was pushing her that hard in that direction first. “I do understand that role.”

“Good, then it shouldn’t be a problem.” Angelica gripped her phone tightly, taking a small step back as if she was going to leave.

“But for the record, I think that Conrad needs to understand more than just how to be an owner in this space.” Hope wrung her hands together in the dish towel she had on her waist. She was going to push Angelica, at least a little bit, because she was pretty sure that was what was expected.

“Oh, he does.” Angelica frowned. “But I don’t have the time to teach him that this round. So if you want to throw a few things his way tonight, feel free.”

“O…kay.” Hope again furrowed her brow. Angelica seemed…flat. Like not only was her entire demeanor lacking in energy but everything about her affect just seemed alarmingly distant. “Can I talk to you a minute?”

“We are talking,” Angelica responded quickly.

“No, out back.” Hope gnawed on her lower lip as she waited for Angelica to give her an answer. She could see the immediate rejection of the idea before Angelica gave in and nodded slightly.

Hope led the way, putting her hand up to stop anyone else from coming with them. She needed this to be just the two of them. She shut the door behind her, looking directly at Angelica as she pulled her mic pack and turned it off. Angelica seemed confused now, and she didn’t move an inch.

Sighing, Hope stepped closer and snagged Angelica’s mic and turned it off.

“What are you doing?” Angelica hissed.

“I need to actually talk to you,” Hope said, clenching her jaw and stepping back.

Her shoulders were so tense, the line between her collar bones tight to the point that it was hurting.

She had always been impulsive, her entire life she’d been accused of that, but this seemed to rub up against Angelica’s sensibilities.

“We don’t need to talk.” Angelica tried to step around Hope and move back toward the door.

“No. We do. What’s going on with you?”

“What?” Angelica spun around, breathing heavily.

“Last night you were… I don’t even know how to describe it, Ange, but something’s off.” Hope cringed. She really should have planned this better. Angelica wasn’t someone who easily shared anything, and now Hope was barreling in like she knew better.

“I’m here to do a job.”

“So am I, but it’ll be a hell of a lot easier if you actually talk to me.”

“Me? Talk to you?” Angelica stepped closer now, a fire behind her eyes that Hope had missed.

It’d been so long since she’d seen it, since she’d wanted to ignite it. She stayed put, letting Angelica make the moves and start whatever dance she was doing.

“I could say the very same thing to you,” Angelica said, her voice a low growl.

“What are you talking about?” Hope shook her head in confusion.

Angelica rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. She pursed her lips and stared directly at Hope in silence. As if that was going to convince Hope to say whatever Angelica was looking for. But she had no clue what Angelica wanted from her.

“I don’t understand…” Hope started, trying to ease into this. Angelica’s fire had started up, and she didn’t want it to consume either one of them before they got somewhere with this conversation.

Angelica’s eye twitched. “We have this last episode to shoot, some press we need to do, and then you’re free to go do whatever you want.”

“What?” Hope furrowed her brow in confusion now. “What are you talking about?”

Angelica took another step closer, her shoes scuffing against the ground as she stopped. “I talked to Mary. If I was that awful of a person to work with, Hope, you should have just told Josef. He’d take your side in a heartbeat.”

Hope’s heart sank.

A chill ran up her spine and grasped her skull in its dark hold, and she knew everything was about to shatter around her.

“Ange…” Hope trailed off, her heart hammering.

That wasn’t anger she was seeing in Angelica’s eyes. It was pain. Pure, raw hurt. Hope’s lower lip quivered, her heart shattering right along with whatever she’d broken in Angelica. Because she had broken something.

“You could have told me…” Angelica murmured, her voice falling so quiet that Hope had to lean in and hear her.

Doing everything on instinct, Hope took one more step to close the gap between them. She reached up and grabbed Angelica’s shoulders and squeezed tightly, trying to encourage her to look up into Hope’s eyes. And when she did…

…Hope wished she hadn’t.

All that hurt and pain and turmoil swirling in the blues was so obvious when they were this close.

Angelica wasn’t even trying to hide it anymore.

Hope’s lips parted, her breath lost somewhere in the mid-morning rise of heat and the LA sun.

She dropped her gaze from Angelica’s eyes to her mouth, to the bowed curve of her lips, the slight part right in the middle where Angelica’s lips barely ever touched.

She turned her head to the side, studying them. The way Angelica’s lipstick was painted across her mouth, the fine hairs right on her skin. She swallowed hard, forcing herself to move her gaze back up to Angelica’s eyes.

“I didn’t talk to Mary because of you,” Hope whispered, though it wasn’t entirely the truth.

It wasn’t because Angelica had behaved poorly.

In fact, it was the exact opposite of that.

It was this exact tension between them that scared the living shit out of Hope.

Every time they were this close, she had to work double-time to stop her brain from disappearing and her body taking over and just leaning in and capturing Angelica’s lips in another kiss.

The first kiss had proven that would be a bad idea.

Angelica didn’t want it.

Hope shouldn’t want it.

“I talked to her in Seattle, but she knows how bad it was and how bad New Orleans was. She was just looking into options.” Hope leaned in even more, wanting Angelica to truly hear everything she said. This was so important. “Trust me, I have no problem telling you what I feel.”

She bit her lip and waited.

Everything rested on Angelica now, on her reaction, on if this would break down the hardened exterior she’d put on in the last few minutes. Angelica breathed, and Hope saw the first signs of a crack, of the ice melting away.

“You should have told me,” Angelia said.

“When could I have told you? You’ve been avoiding me since Seattle, and I don’t understand why.

” Hope furrowed her brow. “I thought we had an understanding. I thought we had some sort of connection—something. Because you treat me so differently than everyone else, but then we’re here, aren’t we?

You coming at me with whatever you can throw and then vanishing, and I don’t understand why. ”

Angelica tensed again. Her jaw clenched, the muscles in her cheeks bulging slightly. Her lips were pressed together so tightly they nearly disappeared.

“You should quit.” Angelica’s words came out forcefully.

“What?” Hope dropped her hands from Angelica’s shoulders to her wrists, sliding them down her arms. Angelica didn’t even flinch at the move. Angelica’s fingers touched hers briefly before the physical connection was broken.

“You should quit,” Angelica said again, more firmly and quiet this time. “I dare you to do it.”

“Wh-why would you do that?” Hope swam in confusion.

“Because you’ll prove his point. Josef was right all along, Hope. And I’m tired of fighting him on it. It’s not worth it. I won’t hold you back from leaving. If you want to break your contract, I won’t tell you no, and I won’t keep you here against your will. Quit.”

“Ange—”

Angelica stepped back, eyes glued on Hope. She held so still. It was terrifying to watch, this unraveling of a woman who was so strong, so tightly wrapped together that Hope knew she could take on the world if she needed to.

“Quit, Hope.” She turned sharply around and wrenched open the door to the kitchen, heading straight back inside.

Hope rocked back onto her heels, putting her hands on her hips and staring down at her shoes.

The LA sun didn’t feel warm anymore. It felt hot, brazen, as it touched her skin and the back of her neck.

She was missing something, and this was way more than just that she hadn’t been told about a scene with her and Angelica or an argument that needed to be fought.

Something had happened.

Something she had no earthly idea about.

But she wanted to know. She was so tired of being tossed into the background and thrown shit that she was expected to catch and not be grossed out by. Raising her chin up, Hope settled her shoulders. She needed to get her head on straight before she walked back in there.

“Hope?” Kyle stepped outside, a frown on his face. “Everything all right?”

“Did you know she was coming down for a scene today?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Hope fisted her hands, tightening her jaw. She was going to take a page out of Angelica’s book, because she was so tired of this shit. “You’re the director. You’re the one who’s supposed to communicate with me. And you haven’t done a damn thing about that.”

“Hope…” His tone of voice was so patronizing.

“Oh don’t you start with me.” Hope glared at him.

“I’ve given you a pass until now, but I’m sick and tired of it.

You have made my job so much harder and so much worse than it had to be, and I’m over it.

Get your shit together, Kyle. Be a director.

Don’t be an asshole. There’s enough of those in the world. ”

She pushed past him and walked back inside to the kitchen. This was her safe space. And she wouldn’t ever let anyone tell her otherwise.