Chapter 10
Chapter
Ten
Ignore.
That was the only way to make it through today.
Ignore Josef’s mass text with the video in it until she could lock herself in her room and break something to let her frustration out.
Because what else was Angelica supposed to do?
She still had to film, she still had to train, and she still had to work with all those people who now thought they knew everything.
Gah, that conversation with Florence had been painful. Angelica had been so tense that her shoulders would feel it for days. When she’d opened that text up and seen the video, the only thing she’d done was go to see if it was the longer version or the shorter one.
Short.
Not that it really mattered. It was pretty damning all together.
“Ange!”
“What?” she snapped at Rex and immediately regretted it. But she wasn’t about to apologize either. She was exhausted from today. And he couldn’t honestly expect her to not be affected, could he?
“I need you to lean in a bit more, look like you’re paying attention to what Colm is answering back to you.” Rex cocked his head at her curiously, like he was trying to wheedle his way under her skin and figure out what was happening.
Angelica sighed heavily. This was the third or fourth time he’d corrected her, she wasn’t sure.
And she was tired of it. With the script in front of her and Rex behind her telling her how to move and walk and lean and look, this had become the least enjoyable experience of her life.
Signing on for more seasons of this had obviously been a mistake.
She should have listened to her gut and pulled out of the contract when she could.
She should have—
“Ange.” Rex’s voice was quite calm this time, reaching her ears still as a chastisement but at least not one done in anger. “I said action.”
Fuck.
“Colm, part of renovating the hotel is to also renovate the structure.” God, who came up with this script. “We need to discuss training and staffing and putting procedures and processes in place that will help elevate your hotel to its finest.”
Colm swallowed audibly. This had been the part of the work that Angelica had been looking forward to the most, but now all she could think about was that text and Josef and everything else going on.
This work was so easy and like second nature to her that she couldn’t even force herself to think about it or get lost in it.
“We’ll start with management today. That’s you.”
“Right.” Colm put his trembling hands on the table top. “What am I doing wrong?”
That sounded so contrite, as if no one in their right mind would actually say that. And no one probably would, at least not in that way. But Colm had a similar script to Angelica’s, and she suspected they were both just going through the motions of getting this done.
“You need to set structure and boundaries with your employees. The more they know about what’s happening and the consequences of not doing their jobs, then the easier it’ll be on them to do their jobs and you to hold them accountable.
There’s slight room for flexibility, of course, but we can’t have too much room for it.
” Angelica frowned at her iPad screen and the words on it.
She sounded like an absolute idiot when she said these things.
She looked to Rex, hoping that he’d push something out of the way to make this better than what was currently happening, but nothing was said.
“I…” Angelica said the single word and then stopped. She shook her head and tried again. “I need you to…” She closed her lips. She looked up at Colm and then to Rex, shaking her head. “I’m sorry, I can’t do this.”
Standing up sharply, Angelica left her iPad on the table and walked out of the room.
“Ange!” Rex called after her.
She ignored him.
“Ange!” Rex yelled again.
She took another step before Rex grabbed her and spun her around. He stepped back, making sure there was still space between them and put his hands up to let her know he wasn’t going to touch her again, but that didn’t really stop the anger from roiling up in her belly and chest.
“What the hell?” Angelica nearly screamed.
“Where are you going?” Rex asked.
“I don’t know.” Angelica shook her head, crossed her arms, and planted her feet. Ideally, she was going anywhere that was away from that room and away from the ridiculousness of this show. Because she couldn’t handle it.
“Ange…” Rex sighed heavily. He stepped forward, hands out to his sides before he planted them on Angelica’s upper arms and pulled her in.
And she let him.
She found herself pressed against Rex’s chest, wrapped in his warm embrace, and she didn’t feel the need to pull away.
Instead, she stayed right there—tense but still—and breathed in his scent.
She closed her eyes, letting the emotions of the last few hours wash through and consume her for just a brief second. And then she relaxed.
Angelica pulled away, stepping back. She lifted her chin to stare up at him, eye to eye. “What was that for?” she asked.
“Thought you might need it.” Rex shrugged. “What’s upsetting you more? The text from the Douche or the script?”
Angelica pursed her lips, not sure she wanted to answer that question. She’d instantly found the calm that she’d been searching for earlier, and all it had taken was a moment of compassion from Rex. Not something she would have ever put money on before.
“I’m not new when it comes to management, Rex. I’ve been in middle management the majority of my career. Now I’m an owner. I know what the hell I’m doing when it comes to running a hotel.” Angelica ground her molars together.
“You do.” Rex nodded in agreement.
“So why does she get off thinking that I don’t know what the hell is going on?” Angelica tightened her grip on her arms, closing in on herself even more than before.
Rex just raised an eyebrow at her, as if he’d been waiting for this outburst to finally happen.
“I’m not stupid. I’m not some woman who can be pushed around, and I’m not someone who needs to be micromanaged to the point that there is no point!” Her words were sharp, and they hit hard as she spat them out.
“You’re not,” Rex agreed again. “You’re more than capable of doing this job.”
“I’m sick and tired of showrunners treating me like I’m their plaything to move around the screen and do exactly what they want me to do.
” Angelica’s breathing was heavy, and the list of accusations and offenses that she wanted to lob in his direction was so long.
But it wasn’t because Rex had done anything wrong—well he had, but he wasn’t part of what she wanted to yell about.
Not today at least. “Why can’t everyone just leave me alone to do what I want to do! ”
“What do you want to do?” Rex asked.
“I don’t know.” Angelica threw her hands in the air.
“I want to scream. I want to go home. I want to…” She stopped sharply.
She wanted Josef to be gone and done with her, for him to leave her alone so that she never had to deal with him again, but she also knew that would never happen.
He was out to get her, and he was out to make her life a living hell no matter what.
And why?
She couldn’t figure it out.
They’d been cordial at one point, for years. They’d worked together well for a few years. And then she came to work for him instead of as a contractor and that’s when everything had gone to absolute shit.
“You want to what?” Rex asked.
“I want to be left alone,” Angelica finally said. She didn’t specify about what, but she was fairly certain that Rex would be able to figure it out.
“I get it, Ange. It’s hard to be in the limelight.
It’s especially hard to be in it when everything is so negative, and when you have someone who’s specifically targeting you for an attack.
” Rex’s face fell. “I wish I could do something about Josef. I wish I had done something sooner about him. Then maybe it wouldn’t have escalated to this point. ”
“I’m not convinced of that.” Angelica tightened again before she relaxed.
“He feels some kind of possessiveness over me, I know that. But I never thought he’d take it this far.
I never imagined…” Angelica blinked away tears, closing her eyes and steadying herself again.
She shouldn’t be getting this emotional, and certainly not with Rex.
“I’ll be fine. I just need a few minutes. ”
What she really needed was a few hours or even a day. But she knew that she didn’t have the production time for that.
Rex nodded slowly, standing there in silence. He looked around them before settling back on her again. “Right, so about the script, since that’s a problem I can actually solve, throw it out the window.”
“What?” Angelica furrowed her brow and straightened her back instantly in surprise.
“Throw it out. It’s blocking you. You’re not a natural actor in any capacity, and I think Florence didn’t realize that when she wrote this up. It’s not in your nature to try and fool people. Just go in there and start training Colm like you’ve always done. Let me deal with Florence.”
Angelica narrowed her gaze at him, not entirely sure what to say or do about that. “We agreed in LA that we were going to do this scripted to protect everyone from the chaos—”
“Yeah. And we can tell her that we tried it, and it’s just not working.” Rex waggled his eyebrows at her. “She’s out with Hope today, and not on-site, so it’s the perfect day to run with this. We can deal with her later instead of trying to tackle it head on while we’re filming.”
Angelica’s stomach clenched, and she stared wide-eyed at Rex.
Once again, he was just trying to help her, to keep her together long enough so that they could get the work done and the episode filmed.
This was the Rex that Hope had fallen in love with, Angelica was sure of it, and she could see why.
He was kind, compassionate, and loving, and he was in tune with what was going on around him.
“I can’t have a relationship with another showrunner like I did with Josef.”
“Florence isn’t Josef.” Rex eyed her seriously. “And you need to stop thinking that she is.”
Angelica paused, her chest hurting from just how damn tense she was. “She might be a different person, Rex, but her mode of operation is the same. She’s here to control what we do and what we don’t do in order to make this show the best that it can be.”
“No, that’s where you’re wrong. Florence is here to work with us to make this show the best that it can be.
I don’t think she’s locked in on having a script for us to follow.
I don’t think she’s going to force you to do it either.
I think she’s trying new things out to keep the drama as minimal as possible based on what we’ve previously been through.
” Rex nodded at her. “And you might know that if you’d get your head out of your ass when it came to her and actually hear what she said. ”
Angelica hated being called out. But he wasn’t entirely wrong. Ever since they’d arrived in New York, Angelica had struggled with Florence. Because she automatically saw Florence as the enemy, as the person who was to lord over all of them until they did what she wanted them to do.
“I’ll be back in there. Just give me two minutes.”
“Two minutes, Ange, and that’s it.” Rex pointed at her. “And we’re throwing the script out.”
“Fine.” She turned on her toes and walked toward the bathroom. She just needed two minutes of silence to sort everything out because this shouldn’t be as messy as it felt.