Page 30 of Under the Table

Hope had seen Angelica in similar ways before, but something about this time made it so much better than all those previous times. She put her hand down on the edge of her chair, her fingers brushing against Angelica’s hip accidentally. She nearly pulled back in an instant, but Angelica didn’t even move. Perhaps she hadn’t felt it.

“We want to know,” Robin said with a sigh. He shook his head, his face falling. “We’re going to lose this place if we don’t.”

“At least you understand fully what’s on the line.” Angelica’s tone softened, but barely. “But before we go any further, there is one thing that I need to talk to you about first.”

“What’s that?” Robin asked.

“Your treatment of Chef Lawrence.” Angelica flicked her gaze between the two men sitting across from them, who now lookedas though they’d just been called into the principal’s office and were about to get scolded or expelled.

“Wh-what about it?” Robin asked, as if he didn’t already know.

Hope nearly scoffed at him. But she managed to hold it in. She pulled her hand up from under the table, accidentally hitting Angelica’s thigh again. Only this time, Angelica drew in a sharp breath and looked at Hope firmly.

Oh, so she had felt it.

Angelica focused back on the men sitting across from them. “Both of you have attacked her, torn her down, undermined her authority and training, and have called her a liar to her face.” She stopped talking.

The list of accusations hung in the air. Neither one of them spoke to defend themselves. Perhaps they didn’t expect someone to actually call them out on their bullshit and bullying. But beyond that—no one had ever stood up for her like this. Not in any production meeting, not in any casting call, not in any grocery store parking lot where Eva had thrown a tantrum. Literally no one had defended her to the point that they would sit down and call out the lurkers and gossipers and bullies in front of Hope’s face.

And that was… Hope didn’t even have words for what that was.

“So what do you have to say for your actions?” Angelica followed up.

A shiver ran through Hope, up and down her spine. Her jaw dropped and she stared at Angelica’s profile, the shape of the lines of her face, the way she was so dead focused on them and not on Hope. They weren’t going to get out of this at all, were they?

“Uh…” Johnny went pale.

“Both of you have acted disrespectfully toward her, and I, for one, am sick and tired of listening to you do it.” Angelica pressed her palm flat into the table. “So I ask again, what do you have to say for yourselves?”

“We were wrong,” Robin said finally, his voice wobbling a little. “I was wrong.”

“Yes, we were wrong,” Johnny jumped in and added. “We didn’t…” Johnny stopped and sighed heavily. “It’s not that I don’t think you’re incapable of doing this job. It’s the opposite. I’m the one that pushed us to sign up for the show, and Robin was the one who was hesitant. I just didn’t realize how much was going to need to change.”

Hope tensed. Had Angelica really just turned this back around to the one issue at hand? Making them figure out what the problem was for themselves?

“And I’m taking it out on you,” Johnny added, ducking his chin. “I’m sorry. Really. I’m not usually such a dipshit.”

“He’s really not.” Robin pointed at him. But then he softened his features. “I’m sorry, too. I think both of us were surprised by what needs to happen.”

“Wh-which is?” Hope asked tentatively.

At Angelica’s nod, she felt much better having interrupted this process, that she hadn’t thrown them off track but managed to keep it on the right path.

“Us, I guess,” Robin said.

“It is,” Angelica confirmed. “Which leads us straight to where we started. This hotel is primed to thrive and succeed, but you two keep getting in the way of it. This is your fault, and you need to take ownership of that. You’re hindering the process of growth, of success, and you’re keeping yourselves stagnant—all because you’re afraid of change.”

Again, the silence was so damn loud.

Hope reached down, this time purposely touching Angelica’s thigh on the way. The shift in Angelica’s posture on the chair was enough to tell her that she’d noticed it this time as well.

“You have one option, really,” Angelica continued. “You can either let us lead you through this, and then you can continue to work on your own problems of fearing change after we leave so that you can be successful, or you can stay where you’re at and flounder.”

Robin looked like he’d just shit a brick.

Johnny, however, seemed a little intrigued.

“You have the next sixty seconds to tell us what your answer is because that’ll inform how we move ahead through the rest of the week. We’re not going to keep pouring time and energy into a venture that isn’t going to change.”