Page 63 of Under the Table

She took it to the bathroom to change and stared at herself in the mirror. Like this, she could pass for younger. Not that she was uncomfortable with her age. She worked hard to get to where she was at. But she could see why Josef was pushing for the lower cuts on the tops and the higher hemline on her skirts, which she still hated wearing most days.

Coming back out, she rolled her shoulders and stretched the muscles in her neck. Lyric caught sight of her, dragging her bag behind her. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Angelica answered on a sigh.

“Long day?” Lyric asked.

“You have no idea yet.” Angelica pressed her hands to her hips and then handed Lyric her other clothes. “Will you put those up with my bag?”

“Sure thing, ma’am.” Lyric’s soft southern quirks that still came out never ceased to set Angelica at ease. “Is there anything else you want me to do?”

“Get me a beer when I’m done.”

“You got it!” Lyric sent her a warm grin. “Maybe I’ll make it two.”

“I knew there was I reason I hired you.” Angelica laughed as she walked back toward the conference room she’d met Rex in. She was assuming they were meeting in there since he hadn’t specified another location, and she wanted to get this scene done, and any other ones he wanted her to film tonight,before she could crash. At least they were in the same time zone she’d just come from so she wasn’t having to deal with another adjustment.

Rex was still sitting at the table, but so was Julian. He eyed Angelica over from her face to her toes and back up again. Angelica chose to sit next to Rex instead of Julian, pulling up the iPad for the show and turning it on.

“Just the two of us?” Angelica asked.

“Hope’s in on this one too, when she gets back from putting Eva to bed.”

“Right.” Those fairytale stories. “How long do you think she’ll be?”

Rex checked his watch. “She’s on her way now.” He didn’t even look at her, keeping his face buried in the iPad in front of him. Well, Hope might have something to talk about, but Rex certainly didn’t. Angelica was going to have to watch that one carefully to make sure that she was navigating the chaos she’d brought on. Because if word got back to Josef…

She shuddered at that thought.

“Are you cold?” Julian asked.

“What?” Angelica frowned, looking up at him.

“You shivered.”

Angelica parted her lips, ready for a rebuttal, but she didn’t exactly have one. “I’m fine. Thank you.”

Rex hadn’t even seemed to notice. Uncomfortable under Julian’s gaze, Angelica chose to ignore him as much as she could. She needed to catch up on the conversation they were supposed to be having in the next twenty seconds, because she was woefully behind in her duties for the show. She’d been so focused on San Francisco and the rocky transition happening there of taking over two hotels.

Retention.

That was the issue at hand tonight. She could tell by the records and by the initial interviews that Julian struggled with retention in a way that Angelica had almost never seen before. It seemed to come in waves, where many people would leave all at once, making him utterly shorthanded and unable to keep up with the tasks. He’d hire a bunch of people and then have to deal with weeding out the ones who didn’t work. Then as if on cue, a bunch would quit all at the same time again.

Angelica scrolled through the information again to make sure the timeline that had been pieced together was as correct as possible. She rolled the electronic pencil between her fingers as she stared down at the iPad.

“I’m here,” Hope announced as she stepped into the room.

Rex did look up at her, his lips curling at the sight. “Eva go down easily?”

“Yeah.” Hope leaned in and kissed his cheek, rubbing his shoulders lightly. “This is the only thing tonight, right?”

“This one and one with you and Ange.”

“Perfect.” Hope went to sit next to Angelica, but Rex shook his head. “I want you two on that side of the table, Ange next to Julian, and Hope on the other side.”

Angelica’s stomach clenched hard. But she did as she was told. She had no reason not to at this point, and the less arguing she did, the less time this would take. She pushed her hair over her shoulder and set up her iPad so both she and Hope were looking at the same information. She lost herself in it until Rex called action and they started shooting.

“One of the biggest issues we’ve found in preliminary information is retention rates.” Angelica pointed at the screen of her iPad and Hope leaned forward to look at something. She looked up at Julian who still eyed her. “We have some information about it, but can you tell us more? Why aren’t employees wanting to stay on here?”