Page 73 of Under the Table

He nodded. Hope finished getting ready, brushed her teeth, and grabbed her phone and iPad before she slipped out of the room and down the hall toward Angelica’s room. Hope stood outside the door and took slow, deep breaths.

This wasn’t going to be a welcome distraction. Definitely based on how Angelica had acted last night. But Hope needed to talk to her, but more importantly, she needed Angelica to understand that she wasn’t alone in all of this.

Lifting her hand, Hope knocked.

When Angelica didn’t immediately come to the door, Hope knocked again. It was early enough that Angelica wouldn’t be down with Ansel yet, and after the way she’d run off last night, Hope suspected she’d just holed herself up in her room and avoided the world. Which was exactly what Hope would have done.

“Angel, it’s me.” She knocked a third time.

It took another minute, but the locks on the door finally clicked and the door opened. Angelica stood on the other side, her hair down around her shoulders, face clean of any makeup, and a silky low cut white camisole covering her chest. She had a black skirt on that stopped well above her knees, but that was it. Freckles littered her shoulders and chest, and Hope longedto trace them with her fingers again. It’d been so long since they’d touched each other like that, and while they’d explored each other’s bodies, Hope wanted desperately to do it again and again.

“Can we talk?” Hope asked when Angelica didn’t automatically let her in.

Angelica said nothing, but she did open the door more and then stepped away from it, deeper into the room. Her feet were bare on the floor, so she made almost no sound as she went. Hope followed her into the main part of the bedroom area and plopped onto the bed. Angelica sat at the desk chair, legs crossed as she stared at Hope.

“Did your run help?” Hope asked, her voice more timid than she wanted it to be.

“Not really, no.” Angelica’s voice was raspy, as if she was exhausted.

“I didn’t realize Josef was coming to filming.”

Angelica raised her eyebrows quickly and then lowered her chin to look at the ground. “He’s not been happy with my methods ofwrangling the catsso to say.” She sighed. “He’s come to take over and make sure that we’re meeting his standards.”

“So he’s staying for the rest of filming?”

Angelica shrugged slightly. “Unless his wife takes a turn for the worse, my guess is that yes, he’ll stay.”

“His wife?”

“She has breast cancer.” Angelica’s lips thinned into a line. “He stayed for her treatment, but I do think the bulk of it is over with already.”

“Oh. He didn’t tell me that.” Hope wrung her hands together, nerves eating away at her insides. “I don’t know what to do, Angel.”

“There’s nothing we can do.” Angelica pursed her lips together, but there was a look of failure that crossed her features. “I grit my teeth, bear the brunt of whatever’s to come the rest of this week, and then we move on next week.”

“That’s no way to live.” Hope frowned. “I talked to Rex about not leaving you alone with Julian, at least during scenes. I’m hoping we can create some sort of drama together so that I can be there for most everything.”

She could see Angelica’s brain spinning, first from the thought that Hope had asked Rex to babysit her to the realization of conflict again. The latter seemed to be less of an issue than the former, so Hope was glad Rex had mentioned it. Perhaps it might be what saved her in the end.

“So what kind of conflict can we create?” Hope asked, not giving Angelica a chance to reject that offer.

Angelica sighed, but she did seem to relax a bit. “Specifics of training staff, wait staff and bartenders. The casinos and the bars are wrapped up so tightly together that it’s nearly impossible to separate them except on paper.”

“That’s a good place to start.” Hope raised her eyebrows in Angelica’s direction. “Do you want me to be the bad guy this time?”

Angelica shook her head. “No. It’s not in your blood.”

Hope laughed lightly. “I can be an asshole boss when needed.”

“Can you?” Angelica looked at her directly. “In San Francisco this summer, when you figured out that I was right about Kylie and your head chef, did you fire one of them?”

Hope’s lips parted in surprise. She remembered seeing Angelica there like it was yesterday. It was rare that Angelica came into her space, but she had loved every second of it, and she wanted it to happen more. “I did, actually.”

Angelica seemed surprised by that.

“Kylie, unfortunately.”

“Really?” Angelica blinked her surprise.