Page 68 of Under the Table

When Hope turned around to see what had distracted him, she was surprised to find Angelica in the middle of the floor, talking with none other than Josef.

Fuck. She swore he wasn’t coming to film this season.

What had they screwed up now?

Chapter

Twenty-Three

Angelica hung up the call and sighed heavily. She’d had a suspicion about Julian, and she’d wanted to follow it, no matter what. And she had. And, unfortunately, she’d been right.

Sexual harassment.

And no one had taken it to the police. He would simply run through employee after employee, and then get new ones. No consequences to his poor behavior. Nothing. But now she was left with the problem that she wasn’t entirely sure what to do with this information or how to make it all come out in her favor in the end.

Rex knocked on the conference room door and stepped inside, nodding at her. “Josef would like more conflict.”

“Of course he would,” Angelica mumbled under her breath.

She’d worried that would be the party line as soon as she found out that he was showing up for this episode. Something about the reports he’d been getting told him there wasn’t enough of her and Hope fighting in their previous episodes. Angelica rolled her shoulders.

“So, what’s your plan for that?”

Rex shook his head. “No idea. Hope’s not on board with it.”

Well, that was good to know at least. She hadn’t had a moment to sit down and talk with Hope yet. Not that she was avoiding doing that either. The way they’d left the conversation two days ago still didn’t sit right with her. She didn’t want Hope to think that just opening up her marriage was going to be as easy as she made it out to be.

“Josef won’t let it go until he gets what he wants.” Angelica squared her shoulders. “We could create drama by inviting some former employees back to confront Julian on his bad management style.”

Rex wrinkled his nose. “I’m not so sure about that.”

Angelica wasn’t either. Putting victims right in front of their perpetrator wasn’t exactly something she wanted to do either. Re-traumatizing people wasn’t at the top of her list. Still Josef would want some drama for the cameras.

Julian stepped into the doorway, his eyes not leaving Angelica as soon as they landed on her. He was quickly followed by Josef, who looked nothing more than the bumbling idiot, following the golden child to clean up after him.

Perfect.

This was going to be far more of a battle than Angelica had thought it would be. She crossed her legs and arms and took on an air of annoyance as she waited for Julian and Josef to sit down and tell her everything she was doing wrong already. Because surely they would.

The cameras were already on in the room, so she knew something was about to go down. And Rex stepped away from the table, indicating that this was a scene about to be filmed and she hadn’t been told anything. Why did Rex let Josef get away with this bullshit so much? He really should hold his own better.

“I thought we could talk about the bar,” Julian said, sitting next to Angelica. “And just how to improve on the issues we have there.”

“Issues?” Angelica raised an eyebrow at him, pursing her lips. As far as she knew, the issue was him and nothing else. She’d been filled in on his behavior both since she’d arrived and before, and she now knew exactly what she was dealing with.

Julian leaned forward and then back, settling into his chair. But his leg was way too close to Angelica for comfort. She glanced at Rex, who was now sitting behind the monitors with Josef and not paying enough attention to what was happening.

“Shouldn’t Hope be here for this conversation?” Angelica asked, using the last line of defense that she had.

Rex popped his head around the monitors. “Do you want her here?”

“Yes.” Angelica didn’t even have to think about that. She didn’t care if she and Hope were at odds right now, she needed the added buffer immediately. “Please,” she added at the last minute.

“We don’t need Hope.” Julian dropped his hand onto Angelica’s knee, squeezing gently.

Angelica’s stomach churned instantly. She stared down at his hand, debating what the best course of action was. She could remove it, or she could stand up and walk away from him. She could storm out and scream and yell. She could do so many things, but she was frozen to the spot.

Had she been touched like this by a man before?