Page 70 of Under the Table

“I’ll see you in the morning.” She spat the words at him before retreating out of the conference room.

She needed a shower, immediately. She needed to get the feel of Julian’s nasty hand off her skin in any way possible. Angelica walked straight to the elevator after dropping her microphone in the main staging area. She was done for the day. Screw Josef. Screw Rex. She wasn’t going to do anything else tonight for them.

She made her way up to her room. As soon as she was inside, she immediately locked the door and put the deadbolt on. Angelica turned around and stared at her room, clean, neat, and everything in order. She breathed slowly, calming her racing heart.

She needed a plan before she went back down there and dealt with Julian again. And unfortunately—or fortunately, depending on which way she looked at it—he didn’t seem interested in Hope in quite the same way he was interested in her. Which now led her to question whether or not all those previous employees had something similar to her…like blonde and busty.

Screw the shower. She needed to run this off and think while she did that. Because her mind wasn’t going to quiet down until she came up with some sort of solution to this problem. Rollingher neck, Angelica stopped in the bathroom to grab a hair tie and pull her hair up into a ponytail.

She then stripped out of the clothes for shooting and dropped them into a pile on the floor. She didn’t want to take good care of them. Not right now. She pulled on leggings, a sports bra, and a tank top and then slid her phone into the pocket along her hip and put on her smart watch. When she turned to face the door, she had to breathe slowly and deeply before she could convince herself to go out there. She’d take great pains to avoid Julian on her way out of the hotel, but she just needed to breathe air that wasn’t shared with him.

Angelica rolled her shoulders and stepped out into the hallway. She made it down the elevator and out the side door onto the street before she heard her name being called.

“Ange!”

She stopped, turned around, and waited as Hope jogged toward her. But when she was close enough, Angelica started walking again. She needed to get away from the damn building, and if Hope wanted to talk to her, then they could do that somewhere that wasn’t here.

“Angel, stop!”

“You can walk with me!” Angelica called over her shoulder, hardly slowing down.

“As much as you love to run, I don’t! Slow down!” Hope was nearly out of breath when Angelica let her catch up. “What the hell happened back there?”

“Nothing happened,” Angelica bit out the words. She’d already told Josef and was given the finger to shove off.

“You’ve been off since we got here. What’s going on?”

“You’re so stuck in your own head sometimes, you know that!” Angelica threw her hands up in the air and continued to walk away from the hotel. “It’s a God damned wonder you get anything done somedays.”

“Angel!” Hope sounded shocked, hurt.

But Angelica couldn’t stop herself. She was on a roll, she was riled up, and she was fucking embarrassed. “No, Hope. The whole world doesn’t revolve around you and your wants and needs. There are other people involved in this equation.”

“Just stop!” Hope snagged Angelica’s hand and pulled her around so they faced each other. “What happened in there?”

“Are you really that blind?”

“What are you talking about?”

Angelica’s cheeks burned. “You were sitting right there with me!”

“I…” Hope’s jaw dropped, and she shook her head in confusion. But when she spoke this time, she sounded much calmer. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I suspected from the moment that I arrived that Julian’sproblemwith retention was Julian himself.”

“Well, no shit, Angel. Give me a real reason.”

Angelica clenched her jaw hard. If Hope would just shut up, she would get the answer. “He’s sexually harassing them.”

“What?” Hope paled instantly. “How do you know?”

“Because I called the former employees and I asked them what happened.” She fisted her hands and put them on her hips. “And because he touched me.”

“He did what?” Hope’s voice tightened instantly.

“In that meeting!” Angelica pointed at the hotel. “Under the table, he put… he put his hand on my leg, Hope. And when I removed it the first time, he just went and did it again.”

“Angel…” Hope’s voice softened instantly.