Page 51 of Culinary Chaos (Hotel Bombshell #1)

Chapter

Forty

“ W elcome to the team.” Angelica smiled at the Zoom call she was in as she officially made the notice of hiring for Matthias Bryan—her Leanne replacement.

She’d managed to sneak in one last interview with him earlier that day, which had solidified that he was the right choice to make.

Now all she had to work on was getting him trained and figuring out when he’d be starting.

And she had a few weeks before that would happen.

And she could very easily figure out how to do that and the press tour at the same time.

“Thank you,” Matthias said, a huge grin on his face.

Perhaps the two of them would get along.

He seemed like he could handle her as a direct boss.

Then again, she could be wrong. She’d been wrong before.

Thoughts of Hope swarmed her mind. She really shouldn’t have said what she did when they were talking.

She’d told Hope way too much about what was being said behind the scenes.

Angelica ended the call and immediately sent Matthias an invitation to their online portal where he could fill out all of his new hire paperwork to get that ball rolling.

She didn’t want to push it off or wait until her admin got around to it.

They’d been without a manager long enough, and she needed a replacement in for Leanne.

Leanne.

Angelica sighed heavily, brushing her fingers through her hair.

What the hell was she going to do about Leanne?

The answer was nothing, but that still didn’t stop the ache in her heart anytime she thought about her.

It had been months, and she should have moved on already.

But for the first time in ages, Angelica had thought that they were on the same page, that perhaps they could make a life together.

But Leanne hadn’t agreed, and she’d ended up leaving anyway.

Angelica closed her laptop and looked around the hotel room that she’d called home for the last couple of weeks.

She’d nearly packed everything up already, and the next morning, she’d travel across town to the hotel where she actually lived.

It never made much sense to have a full apartment since she traveled so much, so she’d taken one of the suites at the hotel she primarily was at.

Which happened to be the same one where she’d be training Matthias.

At least Josef couldn’t accuse her of an inappropriate relationship with Matthias.

He absolutely wasn’t her type. Angelica stood up and changed her outfit from the last one they’d filmed in that day to something clean and fresh.

She went into the bathroom to take off the makeup Ansel had put her in that morning and to refresh it with her own style.

It’d be good to get back into the routine of life, wouldn’t it?

She left her hair alone, not wanting to deal with it, and it still looked halfway decent anyway.

She still had to put the final touches on the press tour, and she had to finalize the plans for the crew wrap party, which would be happening next week at her LA hotel.

She’d opted to host, wanting to make sure that all the details were taken care of—and hell, she had the space, so why not?

She smoothed her hands over the white shirt she had on, making sure that it wasn’t bumped up over her belt in any way.

One more night with these people and then she could have a little break.

Slipping into her heels, Angelica pocketed her key and stepped out of her room.

The party should be starting any time now.

Hope’s door opened, and Angelica tensed. Of course. They really needed to stop meeting like this—in hallways, in elevators, anywhere that was close and confined. Angelica didn’t have the bandwidth to keep dealing with it. The break couldn’t come soon enough.

“Oh, hey,” Hope said, her voice dropping.

Angelica winced. She really had done a number on Hope during their last tiff, hadn’t she? It hadn’t been full of anger and bravado like many of the others, but she’d pushed Hope as far away from her as possible.

Angelica nodded in Hope’s direction, acknowledging that they were headed to the same place. She didn’t want to say anything that she’d regret again. They started down the hallway in silence, but it was so oppressive. This quiet attitude wasn’t like Hope—and it was entirely Angelica’s fault.

Hope reached for the button to the elevator, but Angelica put her hand out to stop her. Hope stared at her in curiosity. “Is something wrong?”

So many things were wrong.

And Angelica didn’t have solutions to those problems. Just this one. She dashed her tongue across her lips, looking at Hope’s face and focusing on her eyes. “I’m sorry about yesterday.”

Hope’s eyebrows shot up. “Sorry?”

“Yes.” Angelica’s cheeks heated. It wasn’t often she said those words, but when she did, she always meant them. “I was…frustrated, but not with you.”

“With Josef,” Hope supplied. “Yeah, I could tell that.”

Angelica hummed slightly, keeping her hands at her sides. She was scared if she moved or got any closer that the tension between them would snap, and she’d do something she’d regret.

“I’m always here if you need someone to talk to.”

“No. Not about that.” Angelica couldn’t let Hope know about that. No one could know. Having Josef be the only person on set was plenty. She didn’t need the pressure and watchful eyes from anywhere else.

“Okay.” Hope nodded, turning back toward the elevator, ready to leave and get this conversation over with.

But Angelica wasn’t. She wanted to make sure that she rectified the problem between them fully before they stepped into the party room. “I meant what I said though.”

“What did you say?” Hope frowned at her.

“That if you want to quit, I won’t hold you back from it.

I don’t ever want to force someone to stay somewhere they don’t feel…

comfortable.” That was the best word she could come up with for right now.

Because it was exactly the opposite of what she felt every day on set since New Orleans and that kiss.

“What makes you think I’m uncomfortable?” Hope’s crystalline eyes locked on Angelica’s. Her hair was in curls around her shoulders, the black slacks and black tank forming to her body, and the mustard yellow jacket brought out the darker tones of her skin again.

Angelica could barely talk, her mouth was so full of cotton. She’d taken such great pains not to notice Hope, and here she was, staring at her again. Because they were avoiding the one thing that they really should talk about but that they couldn’t.

“Nothing. I just thought you should know that I meant that.”

Hope cocked her head to the side, shifting her weight so she faced Angelica more fully than she had before. “I understand you’re trying to apologize, Ange, but for the life of me, I have no idea what you’re apologizing for.”

The gut punch was hard. Angelica sighed as her face fell. Perhaps she’d already done too much damage to make repairs for. “I’m sorry it’s been so difficult—filming this show.”

“Oh.” Hope nodded firmly, as if finally understanding. “Well, I don’t think all of that is your fault. Or really most of it,” she mumbled the last bit.

“It’s my job as a producer to make this easier for everyone, and I failed at doing that.”

“You ran into roadblocks, sure, but you also were thrown more wild cards than I think anyone was anticipating.” Hope put one hand into her jacket pocket. “In this case, I accept your apology.”

“Thank you.” Angelica nodded, turned toward the elevator, ready to join the rest of the party to celebrate wrapping up this episode.

“Was that it?” Hope asked.

Angelica looked her over, gaze dropping to Hope’s full lips, the ones that were curling back upward in their natural almost-smile state. She loved seeing that again. Dragging her gaze back to Hope’s eyes, Angelica said, “Yep.”

“All right.” Hope gave her a small smile and reached forward to press the button and call for the elevator.

As soon as they were inside, Angelica relaxed a bit. She could do this. They could find some sort of even footing and make it through tonight, couldn’t they? Angelica sent Hope a small, weak smile, but she received a genuine one back. Yes, they could do this.

“Eva was asking for you today, something about doing more math homework.”

Angelica smirked then. “She doesn’t need my help.”

“Need it? No.” Hope turned to her. “She wants it. She likes you, and that’s something to be proud of. Eva’s scrupulous with the adults she likes, and you’re on the short list.”

Angelica hummed. She felt the same about Eva. Something in that little girl had captured Angelica’s affection, and she wasn’t going to let it go anywhere.

“Were you able to hire a replacement for that manager who quit?” Hope asked.

“Yes, today actually.” Angelica sighed, hooking her thumbs into the pockets of her pants. “I’ll start training him next month probably. I know my assistant manager will be happy to have the extra workload lifted.”

“No doubt.” Hope grinned. “Ange?”

“Yes?” Angelica turned to face her fully.

“Are we okay?”

She hated being thrown back into that chaos. They’d just left it, so why did Hope have to bring it up again?

“Because I want us to be okay.”

“Yeah, we’re okay.” Angelica’s voice softened, and she couldn’t stop herself from smiling. “It’s been an intense few months.”

“It has,” Hope responded. “Way more stressful than I anticipated.”

“I think more than anyone did.”

They shared a light chuckle as the doors to the elevator opened on the second floor.

They walked together, the din of voices reaching their ears as they got closer to the salon where Conrad had set up the party.

Everyone was there already, which Angelica wasn’t unused to.

But typically Hope would have been there before her.