Page 134 of Under the Table

“Las Vegas and San Diego,” Angelica finished for her. Their eyes locked as they looked up, Heidi standing awkwardly between them. Angelica cleared her throat and went back to slicing the apricots like she’d been told to do—at least she thought she’d been told that. “It was a whirlwind of a season.”

“I can’t imagine how much time it takes to film a show like yours or how much travel is involved,” Heidi commented, trying to keep the conversation going.

“Both Hope and I are used to traveling.” Angelica lifted her shoulders, again putting the knife down. She wasn’t an expert like Hope, and if she tried to slice and dice without looking, she would absolutely lose a finger in the process.

“You two do seem to have a lot of similarities. Both bosses, both confident in your skills.”

Angelica didn’t feel that right now at all.

“But you seem to have amazing chemistry on the show. How do you two maintain that?”

Angelica’s jaw dropped in shock. She stared at Hope, her cheeks rushing with heat before the cold sweat of reality settled into the pit of her stomach. She put her hand out for Hope, wanting her to answer instead, but then she realized belatedly that Hope wasn’t as good at thinking on her toes.

“We do have a good chemistry. In fact, Hope commented on that when we met the very first time, and it’s part of what kept her on the show.” Angelica went back to slicing the apricots. Seriously, when would she have enough of these things chopped?

“Wait, so were you hired first?” Heidi asked, pointing at Angelica and catching her attention.

“Yes.” Angelica nodded, forcing a smile to her lips. “There were two or three other chefs that were screen tested with me before Hope showed up and stole the show.” It wasn’t quite the truth, but it was a good spin on it, and the viewers wouldcertainly enjoy it. They’d done all of the press separately last year, so putting them together this year was quite a challenge for Angelica to avoid the direct questions that were being thrown at her. Especially with Hope in the room.

“Ange scared me the first time I met her,” Hope said, her tone far lighter than Angelica thought it’d be.

“Scared you?” Heidi seemed surprised by that fact.

“Well, yes. You’ve met her. She’s a bit scary at first.” Hope laughed.

Angelica clenched her jaw. The last thing she wanted was to pretend like everything was okay between them, like nothing was going on and nothing had happened to devastate her.

“But she warms up after a while.”

“At least for you she does,” Heidi said with a chuckle. “I’m not so sure about some of those hotel owners and managers.”

“No, not them,” Hope replied.

Angelica kept her chin ducked down. She really didn’t want to be a part of this conversation. She wanted to hide away and pretend that it wasn’t happening, that her entire personality wasn’t being picked apart in an instant on live television with way more viewers than she could comprehend.

“Then again, they’re not worthy of it.” Hope winked in Angelica’s direction.

The social media lesbian army or whatever they wanted to call themselves would run away with that clip and never come back. Angelica sighed internally at it, but she also realized just how useful it’d be in creating hype before the upcoming season dropped.

“You know, Hope has quite a temper as well.” Angelica cocked her head to the side. “She just has better control over hers than I do.”

“Oh, I think we saw some of that in the first season, didn’t we?”

“You did,” Hope answered, but she didn’t seem very happy with that comment.

Still, two could play at this game. If Hope was going to throw Angelica under the bus, then she could do it right back. At this point, they both knew enough about each other to do damage.

“Is this enough apricots?” Angelica asked, hoping to change the topic slightly.

Hope came over, her hands clasped together up by her shoulder as she inspected Angelica’s work. “Yes. It’s perfect. Thank you.”

Hope took the apricots and slid them into the pot that Angelica had stirred earlier. Instead of beginning on the next step, Angelica washed her hands and dried them off. She was done cooking, and unless Hope told her explicitly that she needed to do something else, she wasn’t going to do it.

“Speaking of chemistry on set… Hope, your husband is the primary director, isn’t he?”

“Uh…” Hope paled, her lips parted and quivered. “Uh, yes he is.”

“What was that chemistry like? My husband doesn’t work on the show, but I imagine it can’t be easy to work with your partner every day, especially when on location each week.”