Page 8 of Culinary Chaos (Hotel Bombshell #1)

Chapter

Six

“ C an you believe that?”

What they’d heard still boggled Angelica’s mind. She’d looked to Hope several times throughout the course of their interviews, but Hope didn’t seem to get it.

These owners should have filed for bankruptcy a year ago.

And the information they’d been given originally before they arrived was all wrong.

“Believe what?” Hope leaned back into the chair at the conference table, which was now cleared of all the work Angelica had finished last night.

Sighing heavily, Angelica tensed her shoulders. Her mind whirred with all the questions she now had, and anger simmering under everything. She’d done her research so many times over when it came to which hotels they would go into. How had they missed this? Who had missed it?

“They’re not drowning in debt, Hope. They’re drowned.” Angelica shook her head slowly, throwing her pen onto the table. She stood up suddenly, the urge to move strong. She needed to yell at someone. She needed to rail against the fact that they hadn’t figured this out before. “Where’s Josef?”

“Uh…”

Angelica ignored Hope and snagged her phone, sending off a text to the two other producers on site that day, and the director. They needed to have a meeting. Now.

“He’s coming,” Angelica said, though she didn’t really care if Hope agreed with her or not. “I don’t even know where to start.”

“With the biggest crack,” Hope answered, tapping her finger against the tabletop.

“Which is?”

“Their manager—Bryant.” Hope looked directly at Angelica. “Being in management requires good communication, and he clearly admitted to thwarting others for his own pleasure by miscommunicating or just not giving people the information they needed.”

“Agreed.” Angelica stared Hope down. Maybe she wasn’t as bad at this as Angelica had first thought she would be.

“I think the kitchens are the least of the problems here.” Hope put her hand flat on the table and pushed herself to stand. “I’m going to check them out.”

“Mrs. Lawrence…” Angelica paused. What was she going to say?

That she wanted Hope in on this conversation?

That she didn’t want Hope to leave just yet?

That was asinine. The problems were with hotel management, not with the kitchens.

Hope had pegged that quickly, which meant they were Angelica’s problems, not Hope’s.

“Did you need something?” Hope asked, raising an eyebrow in curiosity.

“Oh, uh… no.” Angelica clenched her jaw and relaxed into the chair again. Maybe she was just running face first into the stress of a new venture. She’d been here before, and she understood how she reacted to these types of situations.

This was no different.

Hope said nothing as she walked out of the conference room. But Angelica couldn’t take her gaze off Hope’s pear-shaped body, the way her ass and wide hips swished from side to side in the tight black stretchy jeans she wore, the soft gold shirt fluttering around her waist and back.

Wade should have put Hope in gold instead of black.

The colors matched her slightly darker-toned skin in a way that made her positively glow and brought out the auburn and red in her nearly black but definitely brown hair.

The color suited her so much better, and yet, Angelica was supposed to be the star of the show.

Who was she kidding? She wasn’t here to be a show runner.

She was here to do the work that she loved and enjoyed and maximize on the income.

Angelica drew in a breath and held it tight in her lungs as the door shut lightly behind Hope.

What the hell was she thinking?

Her thoughts strayed back to Hope, to the distracted look on her face while they’d been interviewing managers, to the confusion that swam in her eyes the night before.

Why did that haunt Angelica so much? She’d barely slept a wink.

She traced a circle onto the top of the table, her mind spinning in thoughts and conversations, to the hopes and stresses of what this entire show was.

This was her one shot.

She wasn’t sure she could put herself through this again.

The door snicked open loudly, and Josef, a short portly man, stepped in with raised eyebrows as if expecting her to have all the answers already. Angelica sat up straighter in her chair. “We need to rework our plan of action.”

“You mean your plan of action?” Josef sat down next to her. “What happened?”

“I’m going to suggest termination of Bryant and the current chef they have.” Angelica flicked her gaze to him. “But we’re going to need a backup plan to come in temporarily in order to keep things moving along here.”

“Any suggestions?”

Angelica let out a little sigh, her gaze flicking back to the door.

She wished Hope hadn’t left just yet. She wanted to see what she was made of, if she would be able to find solutions—creative ones—when they needed it the most. But she wasn’t here for that any longer.

Which left Angelica in charge of this part of the process.

Perhaps it was because Hope didn’t understand everything that was going into this show.

It was just one more reason that Hope wasn’t the right person for this job.

“Angelica?”

“I’ll call in a favor for the hotel management.

I can probably have someone in place before we start filming.

As for the chef…” That was a bit outside of her normal contacts, which was why she’d wanted to partner with someone who knew more about that realm than she did.

And she was saddled with Hope Lawrence, celebrity chef who had a daytime cooking show, owned a couple restaurants she probably barely visited, and got this job because her husband was an assistant director.

If Angelica had any other choice, she would have taken it.

“You might want to talk to Hope about that,” Josef said.

“I will.” Though she didn’t want to. Angelica crossed her arms and stared down at the table. “They’re filming interviews tomorrow, right?”

“Yes.”

Angelica already knew that. But she was asking just to confirm that Josef knew it.

They would do the backstory interviews on the owners and staff, collect more information, and start actual filming.

The thought of that sent jitters through Angelica’s body.

She’d worked on this side of the business before, she’d opened her own hotels to filming decades ago, but she’d never much been one for being on the screen—though she had on occasion.

The directors and producers had all said she was a natural behind the camera. Angelica had just treated it like it wasn’t there.

“They won’t survive after we leave,” Angelica whispered, flicking her gaze to Josef. “Or if they do, then they have more gumption than I can determine.”

“Maybe we should do a follow-up episode next season on all the places we visit this year.” Josef’s dark eyes locked on hers. “You and Hope can go back and visit, and it’ll add a second connection.”

“If we make it to a second season,” Angelica mumbled, not quite sure she wanted to say that out loud, but also needing it to be in the room.

Because that was her fear, every second of last night and today.

That somehow they wouldn’t make it beyond the first season.

That as soon as they started filming the first full episode everything would fall apart in seconds.

“Don’t let anyone else hear you talk like that.” Josef eyed her. “You knew this was a risk when you were approached for the project.”

“A calculated one.” Angelica pursed her lips, eyeing him back directly. “You said you could make it happen.”

“And I have, for this season.” Josef leaned over the table toward her. “Just make sure you’re not the reason it fails, and we’ll have a second season, even if we have to find a new chef to work with you.”

Angelica’s heart sped up. She’d never seen Josef look so serious before.

“I know how you work, Ange. And I know what a hard-ass you can be, but this isn’t your world anymore. It’s mine. Don’t fuck it up.” Josef pointed at her before sliding back.

Angelica nearly trembled, but she didn’t. She held her ground. She and Josef had become decent friends for a while there, at least decent work acquaintances. He came to her when he had a filming project, and she would bend over backward to make sure he had what he needed to get his project done.

She’d never thought she’d be on this side of the camera back then. But now? How would this change their work life? Would she ruin yet another business connection while trying to do something new?

That was always the risk, wasn’t it?

“I’m not the only one who can fuck things up, Josef.

” She eyed him carefully, not backing down.

She hated threats, even ones that were founded.

And she wasn’t going to let him get under her skin.

She just had to remember that she didn’t have any friends here, and like she’d told Hope, she wouldn’t ever have friends here.

This was work and nothing else. “Next week will show us if this will truly work or not.”

“I know it will.” Josef shook his head slightly and stood up. “It’ll show me if you were really ready for this or not. I fought for you, Ange. Don’t make me regret my decisions.”

He walked away, leaving Angelica alone in the conference room.

She leaned back in the chair, sighing heavily.

The weight on her shoulders was so much.

Didn’t he see that? Even if he did, he wouldn’t care.

He wasn’t there to care about her, he was there to care about the show, and nothing else.

And in all fairness, that was exactly why she was there.

She had to make this work.

She never failed at anything.

Standing up sharply, Angelica walked quickly away from the table and out of the room. She walked directly toward the restaurant and kitchen, knowing that was exactly where she would find Hope. Angelica stepped into the kitchen and froze.