Page 144 of No Holds Barred

“Yes.” Logan smiled at her, eyes crinkling in the corners. “And I’m not sure if you’re aware, but Hope’s condition for signing a new contract was three things.”

“She made demands?” Angelica shuddered, still trying to parse through everything.

“She did. The first that Josef is no longer involved in the project, which was easy since he’d already been removed.”

Angelica’s brain spun wildly. Hope wasn’t someone who demanded. She’d do whatever most people wanted her to because she found it fun. But to negotiate?

“Second that you were her cohost. She refused to sign again if you weren’t involved in the project in the same capacity as before.”

“I’m sorry. Say that again?” Angelica blinked at him wildly. “She insisted on working with me?”

“Yes, she did.” Logan wiggled his foot, hanging off his knee. “She didn’t tell you?”

“We haven’t exactly had a moment to talk, and we’ve been avoiding talking about work and questions we couldn’t answer.”Angelica pushed her shoulders back into the chair. “She really said that?”

“Yes, her second demand, but I think that was probably one of the more important ones.”

“Dare I ask what her third contingency was?” Angelica folded her hands together in her lap, now curious as to what else Hope could have played hard to get for.

“Equal pay.” Logan looked at Angelica directly. “Hope pointed out that you make less than she does on the show. She thought it was because her name carried weight, when in reality, I think it had more to do with initial negotiations. Regardless, you will make the same as Hope for the rest of the series.”

Angelica went slack-jawed. “Sh-she negotiated a pay raise for me?”

“She did, her signing her contract for renewal was contingent on it.” Logan leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “I have to say, Ange, the two of you paired up as a team would easily be a force to be reckoned with, and I think I’m just happy to have caught you off guard in this because that’s to my advantage, not yours. I don’t expect next time that it’ll be easy.”

Angelica’s heart pattered. Her ears rang loudly. She hadn’t been expecting this at all. Her fingertips tingled as she stared at him, lips parted in awe.

“So, think about the contract and signing it. I’ll email it tomorrow, like I said, but I wanted to talk to you in person, so you understood where we stood.”

“I’m sorry. What, uh… what consequences will there be?”

Logan canted his head to the side in confusion. “Consequences?”

“For my relationship with Hope?”

“None.” Logan shook his head at her. “We’d like to talk with you two about how to publicly announce it and how to share the information with the rest of the crew before we begin filming—assuming you sign a contract—and put some fail-safe into place. But Ange, we’re all happy for you. That’s it.”

She couldn’t believe it. Her entire life she’d had to fight for what she wanted and deserved, doing all of that work on her own and just scraping for the future to exist, and here she was handed something with so much ease and care that it was foreign. A family that was happy for a relationship? She couldn’t even fathom what her parents would say to her being in a relationship with Hope. She’d have to, because she’d no doubt get a nasty phone call as soon as they went public, but to have those around her, in her immediate vicinity, support her on something?

“Ange? You okay?” Logan asked.

She shook her head, stilling again. “I’m not sure what to say.”

“About what?”

“Any of this.” Angelica looked at him squarely. “I never expected or thought this would be the outcome.”

“Hope did say you’re fatalistic.”

Angelica pinched her face and shook her head. “No, I’m a realist. For most of my life I’ve had to go it alone, Logan. I just?—”

“Don’t know what to do when someone’s there to support you?”

Angelica shook her head.

“Or to love you for who you are?”

She shook her head again, her cheeks heating from embarrassment. She was nearly sixty years old. Shouldn’t she know what that felt like? Shouldn’t she have some sort of system in place for that?