Chapter 3
Chapter
Three
The oppressive stuffiness of the room had a light sweat pooling at the small of Hope’s back. She reached for one of the cold bottles of water near the center of the conference table and pulled it toward her, twisting the cap and sucking down a good quarter of it. The liquid was so refreshing.
They’d been sitting there close to an hour already, and Hope had struggled to take her gaze off Angelica, and to stop thinking about the other night, about the fact that since they both returned home, she wanted so much more than whatever they had before.
This wasn’t a fling.
It was love. Pure and simple.
And Hope wanted to live fully into that relationship as much as she possibly could.
Angelica took notes on her iPad, writing quickly as things were said, and she’d add to the conversation between Logan and Rex and Cadence.
But Hope just sat there. She wasn’t someone who would jump into the center of these types of conversations unless she had to.
She wasn’t a producer on this show—she was simply there for the ride.
And she’d go wherever she was told to go and do whatever needed to be done.
But the feel of the room was so vastly different than the last three seasons.
Hope could only attribute that to one thing.
Josef.
He was gone. Banished from production and filming, banned from a show that he’d created.
That was the only part that Hope felt even an inkling of bad about.
The rest? He got what he deserved, and those threats he’d made during the break, shortly after his expulsion, still lingered in the back of Hope’s mind.
Along with the video.
“What do you think, Hope?” Rex stared at her directly, no doubt already knowing she hadn’t been paying a lick of attention. “Do you want to go back and revisit some of the previous hotels we’ve worked with? Film a few updates to take up some spots in the lineup this year?”
“Yeah, that sounds good.” Hope’s voice was rough. She reached for the water bottle again. “We can do it quickly in a week or two, so it wouldn’t take up loads of time.”
“Good. I’ll work on figuring out which ones we can go back to,” Logan said.
“You mean which ones still exist,” Angelica chimed in, marking something on her iPad.
Angelica probably already knew the answer to that and just wasn’t saying anything.
Hope was certain that Angelica kept tabs on every hotel they’d been in, some more than others, but she wasn’t someone who didn’t want to see the results of her hard work.
Hope could appreciate that. But her results—cooking for someone and watching them consume it—had a much quicker payoff than Angelica’s.
“We can even visit some that don’t, and talk about why they failed.” Rex shifted his gaze from Angelica to Hope, looking at her directly.
A year ago, Hope might have taken that as a dig, but right now, she didn’t.
He was simply trying to prove his point to Angelica and wanting Hope to jump in to back him up on that comment.
But she didn’t really care either way if they visited previous hotels or not.
Again, she’d go wherever they told her to go.
She glanced at the time on her phone and bit her lip.
She had five minutes before she had to escape back to her house to finish filming for the day.
The break had been nice, especially while everything was cleaned and reset.
It felt good to get out of her own head and house for a while, but she wanted to be done with at least one show so she could focus on the next.
Trying to balance two shows at once was taking quite the toll on her.
“We’re about to wrap up, Hope.” Logan’s voice reached her ears.
She nodded at him, glad he was at least being considerate of her time.
“Let’s plan to add in a quick five-minute follow up to the end of three episodes.
If it goes over well, we can add in some more or make a whole episode during the second half of filming.
” Logan closed his notebook. “I think that’s it for now.
All of us have a meeting with Florence Delrosa in an hour. ”
Hope frowned. She was supposed to be in on that meeting, but because of her filming schedule, she wasn’t going to be able to make it. And she’d have to trust that Angelica was going to let her know what happened during it.
As everyone packed up and filed out, Logan pointed at her. “I need a minute with you. And you.” He flicked his finger toward Angelica.
Hope bit her lip and watched as Rex eyed her when he left and Cadence shook her head, grinned, and then winked.
What the hell did they know that she didn’t know?
Or perhaps that was just Cadence being Cadence again.
It’d been a while since they’d been in close proximity for long periods of time, and despite filming the short cooking videos with Angelica, Hope had forgotten just how intense Cadence’s personality could be.
“What did I do?” Hope asked as soon as the door to the stuffy conference room was shut. She reached for the water bottle again, chugging what was left of it.
“Why do you always assume you did something wrong?” Logan asked, looking from Hope to Angelica.
“Because most often that’s the case.” Hope crossed an ankle over her knee and sat back in the chair.
“If this is about my hair being short, I think Ange is going to have fighting words about keeping it.” Hope bit her tongue to keep herself from saying anything else.
That was as forward as she’d been in Logan’s presence about their relationship, and it felt so damn weird.
“This isn’t about your hair. Actually, if anything, it’s improved ratings.”
“What?” Hope furrowed her brow and stared at him directly. “Are you serious?”
“The lesbian army.” Angelica’s voice was calm, cool, and collected, but she wasn’t looking at Hope when she spoke either. She was focused like a fly to light on the iPad in front of her. Then she handed it over to Hope. “See?”
Hope took in a short breath as she watched a video that Lyric had clearly texted Angelica.
It was clips from the last season, of the looks Angelica had given Hope, and with a young self-proclaimed lesbian on the screen two seconds later saying, “Yes, yes, we get it, Ange. We’re all weak in the knees for her too. ”
“Oh.” Hope pressed her lips together hard when she glanced at the number of views on the video and nearly had a heart attack.
Since she’d picked up another show to film she hadn’t had more than two seconds to look at social media or pay attention to it.
She had people for that, and they were doing an excellent job at keeping up with it.
At least for now. But they apparently hadn’t been telling her about these things.
“It’s very gay,” Angelica said, stealing the iPad back and setting it on the table.
“So if this isn’t about my hair, what did I do wrong?” Hope crossed her arms and waited them out. She could get answers from them.
Angelica shook her head in Hope’s direction.
So she had no idea what this was about either. Logan sighed heavily and tensed up. Oh, this wasn’t going to be good. Hope’s stomach churned and twisted. Whatever was about to be said was going to be something she wasn’t going to like. And Logan was the one tasked with dealing with it.
“I’ve given you both a wide berth about your relationship, particularly because we haven’t been on set, but…I need some answers.”
Hope’s stomach dropped. She looked directly at Angelica as a cold clammy sweat rushed through her and took over her entire body. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
Logan shook his head at her. “We’re going into filming season four, and I need to know how you’re going to conduct yourselves while on set.”
“I don’t think we’re going to be any different than we were before.
” Hope bit back the words, the defensiveness in her tone strong, but she couldn’t help herself.
She and Angelica had lived in the bliss of not filming since the break started, and now they had to face the music.
And they hadn’t even discussed it. Not once.
“It’ll be different.” Logan folded his hands in front of him, looking from Hope to Angelica—who had been unreasonably quiet. “Ange?”
Angelica shook her head slowly, her curls bouncing around her shoulders and face. But she didn’t say anything.
“I need you two to come up with a plan before we start filming.” Logan looked back at Hope, probably because she was the only one actually responding to him so far. “Because I need to know what to plan for.”
“What to plan… this isn’t a negotiation.” Hope crossed her arms then tightened her grip. “We’re not breaking up—”
“That’s not what I’m saying.” Logan threw his hands up in the air as if to ward off what Hope was insinuating. “No, I don’t want that. What I mean is how you’re going to behave on set…what we’re going to tell people.”
“He wants a plan of action for going public.” Angelica’s voice rang clearly through the room, but she was so soft when she spoke, as if she wasn’t exactly sure what she wanted to say or to confirm it.
“W-we don’t have a plan of action for that.” Hope’s eyes widened as she looked at Logan. “This is a relationship, not a PR stunt.”
“Some people might view it as such.” Logan tapped his fingers on top of the table, like Hope should have already thought of all of these things before coming into this meeting. “And other people will view Ange as—”
“The home wrecker.” Hope finished that sentence for him. She didn’t need anyone else to say it out loud. She knew exactly how some people would react to the information. Rachel had given her enough of a preview for that one. “She’s not, though.”
“I don’t need you to convince me.” Logan nodded at her. “I just need the two of you to talk it through and let me know what your plans are. We’ll work through the rest of PR and production around that.”
Hope shifted to look at Angelica, who still had her head buried in her iPad. What the hell was she thinking? Hope met Logan’s eyes. “Thank you.”
Logan grabbed his things and stood up, leaving them alone in the room. But Angelica still didn’t move to talk. Sighing heavily, Hope glanced at the time on her phone and let out a quiet curse. She didn’t have time for this. Not today.
“I told you that we needed to talk about this,” Hope said, a bite in each word that she hadn’t wanted to be there.
But hell, she was frustrated. She had brought this up several times over the break and Angelica had continued to avoid it.
And now they couldn’t. Now they had to talk, and Hope had no damn time to even think about that conversation.
“I know.” Angelica sighed heavily and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’m not…”
Hope waited. Because she needed some answers, and now that Logan had plopped the possibility of getting some into her lap, she was going to take the opportunity.
“I’m not ready to have this conversation.” Angelica lifted her chin and made eye contact. “And I’m not sure you are either.”
“I’m not?” Hope stared at her confused. “What gives you the right to decide whether I’m ready for a conversation or not? Don’t you think that’s for me to decide?”
“Yes. It is. I just…” Angelica clenched her jaw, the muscles bulging in her cheeks. “This is hard for me, Hope. I have a history and we have to untangle our history still, and there’s a lot to discuss. It’s not as simple as going to the nearest news outlet and telling them that we’re dating.”
“I don’t see how there’s a lot to discuss. You love me, right? And I love you. So what else is there to talk about?”
Angelica sighed heavily, her lips pursed and her entire body tense. Hope knew that look. She’d seen it a million times before. Angelica was frustrated, and she was scared. She wasn’t going to say anything, not today.
“You know what? I’m late for filming.” Hope snagged her bag that she’d put on the floor when she came in here.
Standing up, she squared her shoulders and stared down at Angelica.
“Let me know when you’re ready to talk—preferably before we fly out to New York.
Hmm?” Hope made sure to make eye contact before she nodded firmly and walked out.
She hated leaving like that, but if she stayed in that room any longer, then it was going to turn into a screaming match. At least, that’s what her history told her. She still had no clue what the hell Angelica had been referencing.
But damn it, why couldn’t things just be easy between them?
Hope reached her car before she saw the text.
Angelica
Angelica: I’ll come to your place tonight after work. We can talk then.
Well at least Hope wouldn’t have to wait too long for an answer. Just a few more hours.