Page 59 of Culinary Chaos (Hotel Bombshell #1)

“ I ’m here to see Hope Lawrence.” Angelica pursed her lips as she stared at the host of Hope’s inaugural restaurant. She was a betting woman sometimes, and she was taking the risk that Hope was here tonight, trying to get back into the swing of things before she left for San Francisco.

“Do you have an appointment with her?” the host asked, seemingly unfazed by the discussion. “She only sees people by appointments.”

“Tell her Angelica is here, and she’ll see me.” She wanted to add I’m not a crazed fan, but she wasn’t sure that joke would come off well. She wasn’t all that good at telling jokes anyway.

“I’ll have to talk to my manager first.”

“That’s fine. I can wait.” Angelica stepped to the side to give them the time to do what needed to be done. She hadn’t called Hope, hadn’t texted her. She wasn’t even sure what to say, but she did know that they needed to finish their conversation from a few days ago.

It didn’t take too long. Word must have traveled fast. Hope stepped around a partition, staring directly at Angelica. Her white chef’s coat was parted on the top, revealing a white tank top that was bright against her skin.

“What are you doing here?” Hope furrowed her brow, coming completely into the lobby area.

“I thought we could finish our conversation.” Angelica clenched her jaw tightly. She’d assumed that Hope would make the time for her, that this was important enough that it would happen.

“The one from your office?” Hope asked.

Angelica nodded. “Yes.”

Hope cocked her head to the side, holding the tension in the room for a brief second before she nodded. “Welcome to my office.”

Angelica followed as Hope wound her way between tables toward the back of the restaurant. Hope popped her head into the kitchen after checking that Angelica was still behind her, and smiled at her.

“Honey! I’m going to be like an hour. Don’t come get me unless the place is burning down.”

“Understood, Chef!”

Hope turned back around, facing Angelica with a smile of satisfaction. “How did you know I was here?”

“Routine and an educated guess.” Angelica shrugged a little before they stepped into an office in the back corner.

Angelica wouldn’t exactly call it small, though it wasn’t nearly as big as hers.

Hope didn’t need as much space or a conference table attached to her office.

Hope would need a desk and a computer, which she had, a printer and bulletin boards, and she’d need maybe one or two other chairs.

Instead, she had a couch, a deep brown leather couch.

And for some reason, it surprised Angelica that the office was relatively clean and organized.

Point for Hope. She would have figured Hope would leave it a mess every day.

Hope shut the door behind her and proceeded to sit down heavily on the couch, crossing an ankle over a knee and staring up at Angelica as if waiting for Angelica to start this conversation. Well, she had been the one to just show up, so she should, right?

Angelica slid onto the couch next to Hope. They were close enough they could touch. But she had no idea where to start the conversation. Where to pick up when they’d left off.

“Right, so I’m not as straight as I once thought I was, and you are…?” Hope asked, getting directly to the point.

Angelica should appreciate that.

“I have an entire restaurant to prep for the dinner rush tonight, Ange. If we’re not going to talk?—”

“They survived three months without you, don’t try to fool me into thinking they can’t manage one more night.” Angelica shot her a sharp look and then sighed heavily. She rubbed her temple and shook her head. “Sorry. This isn’t easy for me.”

“It’s not easy for either of us.” Hope’s tone was much softer now, which was exactly what Angelica needed.

“You asked me what was wrong with my relationship with Josef.”

“Is this relevant to us?” Hope squinted at her, turning slightly.

“Yes.” Angelica worried her fingers together, still sitting on the edge of the seat and ready to jump up any second she needed to escape. She just had to make sure that she could get out, because this wasn’t going to be easy. “Emotions can be such problems sometimes.”

“Wow. That’s cold.” Hope leaned forward, putting her elbows on her knees and folding her hands together before looking up at Angelica. “Are you going to tell me you don’t feel anything for me?”

“No.” Angelica swallowed the lump in her throat.

Nothing could be more opposite of that. In fact, every day they spent together from that first time they’d met had shown Angelica that she was more “in like” with Hope than she’d ever anticipated.

“Josef suspects there’s something going on between us. ”

“What?” Hope hissed out the word. “Why?”

“Because he’s Josef, and he’s nosey, and we didn’t exactly hide it.” Angelica sighed heavily, her eyelids fluttering shut. Being in here was hard. The entire room smelled like Hope, and it clouded every single one of her senses.

“Hide what? There was nothing for him to see!” Hope crossed her arms and leaned back again.

“There was plenty for him to see, Hope.” Angelica breathed slowly, trying to keep her heart calm and her body present in the moment. “The looks, the touches, the conversations we had. He’s not an idiot, and out of all of the people on set, he knows me the best.”

Why was she avoiding just telling her what Josef knew? Why did she want to keep that small piece of information to herself? It wouldn’t make a difference, would it? Or would it show the one pattern that she really didn’t want to admit to or anyone else to recognize?

“What aren’t you telling me?” Hope asked.

“He accused me of being in a relationship with you, several times.” Angelica’s shoulders dropped in defeat. “And while I could deny his accusations before…”

“You can’t exactly do that now,” Hope finished for her. “That’s why you were so cold when he walked into the room the other day.”

“Yes.” That and other reasons she hadn’t shared, but this would be enough for today. “I’m sorry about that. I know we’re closer than that, but I couldn’t let him see it.”

“I guess it’s a good thing we’re not getting renewed then, isn’t it?”

“I think it’d be a good thing if we didn’t see each other again.” Angelica hated saying those words. She hated admitting that she was giving in to fear and letting it fester instead of pushing back and standing her ground. But she needed to just have calm again.

“That’ll be hard with press.”

“I can rearrange that.” Angelica had already done a lot of that work. She’d already wanted to put more distance between them if she could.

Hope sighed, shifting again to lean in closer and put her hand on Angelica’s knee.

Her fingers were so warm, her touch firm and calculated.

Angelica stared down at her fingers, the way they curled around Angelica’s bare knee, the way heat and pleasure radiated up her leg from just this simple non-sexual touch.

“This is our show, Angel. Don’t let a bully take that away from us.”

Angelica wanted to believe that. But in the next few months, it’d be clear that there wasn’t a show. There wasn’t something for them anymore, nothing holding them together or tethering them to each other’s worlds.

“I didn’t expect this,” Angelica whispered.

“The show not being renewed, or me?” Hope moved her hand off Angelica’s knee and back into her own lap.

Angelica didn’t want to answer that question. Because she couldn’t decide which was worse. “Do you think Rex will talk to him?”

“Josef?” Hope frowned in confusion. “No, I don’t see why he would.”

“I can think of a few reasons why he would.” Angelica sighed and pressed her hands together, palms to palms and fingers to fingers. “I think it’d be best if we just went our separate ways. There’s no reason for us to meet together again.”

“So you’ve said…” Hope trailed off, looking Angelica over carefully.

That scrutinizing look was nearly more than Angelica could handle.

“In the short time I’ve known you, Angel, you’ve never been scared of anything. And I’m not understanding why you’re so scared now.” Hope reached for her again, this time her hand landing on Angelica’s forearm. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“Leanne.” The name slipped from her lips before Angelica could stop it. Hope used that magic, whatever it was, and she pulled it from her. “Leanne was my hotel manager here in Los Angeles.”

“The one who resigned and you had to replace.”

“Yep, that’s the one.” Angelica nodded. She held her breath tightly in her chest, to the point that it hurt before she let it go slowly.

“About a year ago, when Josef was starting to plan for this television show, he came to visit me so we could hash out details . As you may have noticed, he doesn’t exactly knock on doors. ”

“Yeah, I did catch that,” Hope mumbled.

“Right, so he walked in on Leanne and me…”

“Angel…” Hope’s cheeks flushed as she shook her head.

Angelica couldn’t stand it. She stood up, taking a few steps across the room before turning back and crossing her arms over her chest. She didn’t even want to look in Hope’s eyes. She didn’t want to see what everyone else saw.

“The deal was that I break it off with Leanne, I brush as much of the drama under the rug as possible, and if I came out the other side unscathed and without a PR nightmare, then I could continue with the plan of being the star lead instead of a consultant.”

“He blackmailed you.” Hope stood up sharply, her lips parted in shock.

“No. It was a deal. And it was something I agreed to.”

“It’s blackmail, Angel. You need to understand that.”

“No. It wasn’t.” Angelica wasn’t going to back down from this one. “I complied. I thought Leanne was different, I thought that maybe she’d resign then and eliminate the risk of our involvement together being a PR mess to be cleaned up.”

“You thought she’d choose you.”

Angelica’s eyes watered. Why did hearing that hurt so damn much?

“Oh, Ange.” Hope came closer, hands on Angelica’s arms as she squeezed them lightly and then rubbed up and down.

“I was wrong to have made such an assumption.” Angelica stepped to the side, breaking the physical contact. She couldn’t handle it. Not again. “Leanne worked for me for the next six months and then resigned anyway. Apparently, I wasn’t worth it .”

“Don’t ever believe that,” Hope said compassionately.

“Josef knew, Hope. That was the entire point of this. He knew, and when he saw the two of us together, he knew.” Angelica clenched her hands together tightly, trying to make her point clear.

“When he saw us the other day, he knew,” she whispered the last two words.

“And I can avoid, I can skip around his words, I can push back as hard as he can?—”

“But you can’t lie,” Hope said.

“I can’t lie,” Angelica repeated, glad that Hope was finally understanding.

The room fell silent. Angelica didn’t know what else to say. She’d poured her heart out in a few short seconds, and she didn’t know if she would be able to pick up the pieces before she walked out of here. Angelica steadied herself, preparing to leave because it was so hard to stay.

“I’ll make sure Rex doesn’t tell him.”

“You can’t guarantee that,” Angelica responded sharply, her defenses coming up in an instant. “Though I suppose it doesn’t really matter now, does it? No show, no reason to see each other. And I think it’s best left that way.”

“So we’re ending this?”

“There’s nothing to end,” Angelica corrected. “You have your husband, your daughter. You have your restaurants and your daytime show.”

“And you have what?” Hope dipped her chin down, looking directly into Angelica’s eyes. “Yourself?”

Angelica pursed her lips, not prepared to answer that accusation. “Just work with me, Hope. I can’t…” Angelica stopped. “… I’m not going to make the same mistake again.”

“What mistake?”

Angelica dragged in a ragged breath.

“Am I the mistake?” Hope stepped closer, moving into Angelica’s space. “Am I what you’re avoiding?”

“Yes…” Angelica breathed.

“I’m not a mistake.” Hope leaned in, pressing their mouths together.

Angelica moaned, leaning back and sliding one hand around Hope’s back and one up against her neck to just hold on.

Hope pressed into her mouth, parting her lips and sliding her tongue out along Angelica’s lips.

Angelica moved in response, taking Hope’s tongue into her mouth, sliding their tongues together in a slow, deliberate dance.

Hope nipped her lip before diving back in for another kiss.

Angelica tilted her head to the side, changing the angle of the embrace as she breathed in deeply to steady herself.

This felt so good. Just like the last time.

Full of passion, of touch, of thrill. She didn’t want to give this up. She didn’t want it to end.

Threading her hands up the back of Hope’s head and deep into her hair, Angelica pulled her in even closer.

Their hearts raced together. She could feel the heat of Hope’s skin against her chest, the weight of Hope’s body pressed into hers, the breath from her nose against her cheeks.

Angelica reveled in it. To give this up would cost her dearly.

To give this up was exactly what they both needed.

She pulled away, her lips parted as she caught her breath and stared deeply into Hope’s crystalline eyes. “You’re not a mistake, Hope.”

“Neither is this,” Hope said.

“Yes, it is.” Angelica brushed a stray strand of hair behind Hope’s ear, curling her fingers slightly as she trailed them down Hope’s arm. “And you know it is.”

Angelica stepped back, removing her hands from Hope’s body and putting space between them. She didn’t know what else to say to get her point across, but this had to end, and she needed to be the one to end it. Angelica eyed the door and nodded toward it.

“I should go.”

“Angel.”

“I need to go,” Angelica reiterated. She walked to the door, grasping the handle. With one last look over her shoulder, she said the only thing she could think to say. “Good luck in San Francisco, Hope.”