Page 124 of Under the Table

Drawing in a deep breath, Angelica pressed her lips into a thin line before she broke the hold Hope had on her and turned around. She walked away. She left Hope standing there in the wake of everything crumbling around them. And she wouldn’t force herself to go back. She wouldn’t make either one of them deal with this any longer.

She refused to look back at Hope. Because if she did, then it would send her world spinning out of control. She reached her room and pressed her shoulders against the cold door, closing her eyes.

She wouldn’t cry.

She refused to allow herself to do it.

She’d shed enough tears over Hope already, and now wasn’t a time to add to them. Staring at the room in front of her, Angelica made perhaps the rashest decision she had in a long time. Pulling out her phone, she sent Lyric a text.

Angelica: I need to leave for LA. Immediately. You’re free to return for the remainder of your stay or feel free to check out and head home.

She stared at the message. Lyric had to wake up and see it. She didn’t want to call her and have to say anything out loud right now. She needed to just disappear for a bit, find herself back at home, back in the rhythms that weren’t this godforsaken television show, in the life that she hadn’t built with Hope in mind.

Lyric: Yeah. Sure. Everything okay?

Angelica almost saidno.She almost typed out that word. If anyone would understand what was going on, it’d be Lyric, right? She’d been around for so long. She understood Angelica in a way that no one else did, including Hope. They were two peas in a pod some days, and others, well most of them, she was Lyric’s boss. Not her friend.

Never friend.

But God, a friend would be so nice right now. Someone she could run to and cry on their shoulder, someone who would tryto understand and be caring with her. She’d thought she’d found that in Hope, but she’d been wrong. So very wrong.

Walking directly into the bedroom, Angelica snapped open her suitcase and started shoving her clothes into it. She didn’t worry about folding them, she didn’t even try to separate them out. She just needed to get the hell away from here.

When the knock echoed through the suite, Angelica sighed with relief. She walked to the door and opened it to find Lyric in her jammies and a loose t-shirt, with a concerned look on her face. “What’s the emergency?”

“I just need to get back to Los Angeles,” Angelica said, not wanting to elaborate.

“Okay.” Lyric brushed her hand over her face as she stepped in and reached for Angelica’s suitcase. “But I’m stopping for caffeine.”

“Of course. It’s on me,” Angelica said, lowering her voice as she followed Lyric outside to the vehicle.

She slipped in the front seat and buckled herself in, preparing for the long drive back home. At least they weren’t far. At least she could escape this way. With filming done, there was no point in her staying there another night only to leave the next morning.

Lyric said nothing until they got on the highway with caffeine in hand.

“What happened, boss?”

“Nothing happened,” Angelica said with a quick shake of her head. God, she wished she could sleep on the drive back tonight, but she knew she wouldn’t catch a wink. Emotions turned into a raging storm inside her, and she’d be lucky to even be able to think tomorrow when she tried to catch up on work.

“Did you and Hope…?” Lyric paused. “Look, I know you don’t like talking about personal things, but I’m not an idiot.”

Angelica held her breath. She looked Lyric over from the side, the slackness of her jaw, the way her hands were light on the wheel. Angelica’s heart thundered. She’d thought no one knew. She’d thought…

“We had an argument, yes.” Angelica whispered those words, not sure she could say or add anything more to them. Because if she were to confirm what Lyric was clearly inferring, then she would have one more person she’d have to worry about spoiling her secret. And she couldn’t have that. She could never allow that.

“So instead of talking to her to work it out, you’re running away?” Lyric glanced at her. “You don’t run away from problems—big or small, Ms. Shields. Not in all the time I’ve known you.”

“I’m choosing to run away from this one.” Angelica folded her hands in her lap and stared out the front windshield. “And that’s all I’m going to say about it.”

“All right.” Lyric sighed heavily. “I guess it’s going to be a very quiet ride home, then.”

“Yes. It will.”

Angelica ground her molars together. Silence was exactly what she wanted—and needed—right now. Silence to think, to mope, to stew. Tomorrow she could come back with where to go from here. But tonight was hers and only hers.

And she wouldn’t let anyone else take that from her.

Post-Season