Chapter 16
Chapter
Sixteen
“Thank you for sitting down with us,” Angelica said.
Angelica slid into the small four-person table in the dining room that was now, thankfully, smoke free. Mitigation teams were still working in the kitchen, but they’d have that resolved easily enough in the next day. The fire wasn’t as bad as it could have been.
“We wanted to talk to you about some of the conversations we’ve been having and maybe set some plans in motion that might help you.
But we do need to know a bit more detail about what happened after…
the scandal.” Angelica hated calling it that.
But in a small town like this, naming it for what it was wouldn’t do anyone any favors.
In fact, it might harm Ronan and Elsie more than it already had.
Ronan paled visibly, and he stared down at his hands on the table. Elsie seemed dissatisfied with the fact that they were even talking about this. Angelica was going to have to tread very carefully. Luckily, Hope was there to help her out a bit.
“After the scandal, how did you start to rebuild?” Angelica asked, using a softer tone in hopes that it’d help ease them into some kind of conversation.
Ronan pressed his lips together hard, his jaw clenching.
Elsie crossed her arms tightly over her chest and refused to look in Angelica’s direction for an answer.
Well, Angelica was patient, and she could wait them out.
She continued to stare at them in silence, letting the awkwardness pull them toward actually speaking.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Hope’s mouth opening.
Angelica reached out and pressed a hand to her forearm and shook her head slightly. Hope immediately stilled.
“We didn’t,” Ronan finally said.
Elsie snorted. “There’s no coming back from what you did.”
And there was the tension that they’d all been feeling but they hadn’t been able to put their fingers on. Angelica tightened her grasp on Hope’s forearm before she let go and straightened her shoulders. “You two bought this hotel.”
“Mom bought it.” Ronan looked up, directly meeting Angelica’s gaze. “I didn’t have the money to after my divorce.”
Angelica nodded slowly. “And she bought it to give you something to do? A job?”
Ronan nodded again.
Elsie snorted in anger.
Angelica ignored her and focused on Ronan since he was the one who was actually giving her answers. “Ronan?”
“She bought it so that I could have an income. Which hasn’t…” He sighed heavily, that sound echoing the massive weight of the world on his shoulders. “Which hasn’t exactly happened.”
“No, it hasn’t,” Elsie chimed in, that angry tone back. “No matter what we do, this town can’t accept that my boy made a mistake, and move on from it.”
Angelica pursed her lips, flicking her gaze toward Hope. “And you want them to just accept that it was a mistake and move on?”
Elsie nodded.
Hope bit her lip and jumped in. “Part of making a mistake is owning it, which I believe you’ve done. But part of moving on from that mistake is to work toward restitution and reconciliation. You have to prove that you’re trustworthy and that you learned a lesson from this.”
Ronan’s cheeks reddened and he shook his head. “They’ll never accept that.”
“You’ll never know if you don’t try,” Hope said.
Angelica nodded her agreement. “Which does play into a bit of the plan that Hope and I have talked about for this place. You can’t keep doing everything on your own. You’re going to run yourselves into an early grave if you do that.”
Elsie frowned at that. Perhaps Angelica was getting through to her, even if just a little.
“In order to fix this hotel, we have to deal with your reputation.” Angelica placed her hand flat on top of the table. “Because you need this town behind you in order for the hotel and restaurant to thrive.”
Ronan swallowed hard and shook his head. “I don’t think it’s possible.”
“You’ve survived this long after it somehow, and I’m sure you can do it again.
” Angelica looked at him directly. “Let’s put out a call for housekeeping, we’ll increase wages dramatically to make it competitive to entice people in.
And then we’re going to make that job the cushiest and best job in town.
This will be the best hotel to work at.”
“W-we can’t afford that.”
“I think you can.” Angelica tapped her iPad. “I’ve been playing with the numbers and looking into them, and I think this is manageable. We can go through more of those details later.”
“Elsie,” Hope jumped in again, “you and I are going to make a bunch of bite-sized foods and we’re going to take them to the local farmers market tomorrow, and then we’re going to start handing them out on the street. We want to entice people into the restaurant with your food.”
“We’re giving away food?” Elsie seemed skeptical now.
“Yes.” Hope crossed her arms, taking a harder stance with Elsie than she typically would.
When they’d come here, everyone had thought that Ronan would be the hard nut to crack, but it was definitely his mother. She had protection written all over her, and Ronan was so broken that he didn’t have any more shits to give.
“That’s a waste of money.” Elsie pouted.
“Sometimes you have to waste money in order to gain respect.” Angelica was going to take this hard stance because she’d done the work, and both Elsie and Ronan had to be fully in on the game plan to see it through.
But she wasn’t convinced that they would push hard enough to make this work.
“You both need to commit to this. If you don’t, then Hope’s suggestion, along with my own, is that you plan to foreclose and abandon the hotel business. ”
“The food and service aren’t the issue. You’re right when you say it’s reputation and the fact that you can’t seem to make any headway on it.
It’s time to stop waiting for people’s minds to change about who you are and it’s time to start giving them a reason to want to change their minds.
” Hope looked from Ronan and Elsie directly at Angelica, raising her eyebrows at Angelica, as if she was talking to her and not to them.
But she couldn’t be doing that, could she?
Angelica’s lips parted in surprise, and she nearly stuttered out her next comment. “You have to get ahead of the PR nightmare while you can. Burying your head in the sand isn’t going to do anyone any good.”
“You’re right. It’s not.” Again Hope was looking directly at her.
Damn it. Hope wasn’t just talking about Ronan and Elsie.
Anger burned its way into Angelica’s chest, but she pushed it back down and focused on the reason they were even here in the first place. “I’ll give you thirty minutes to talk it over and tell me what you think. Here’s the plans we’ve made up.” Angelica turned on her iPad and slid it over to them.
She stood up and walked away, needing to put some space between her and Hope. Whatever that was, was uncomfortable.
Hope said a few more words and then followed Angelica back toward the main lobby. “Angel!”
Angelica ignored her. She didn’t want to hear more of what Hope wasn’t directly saying to her.
“Ange, wait up.”
Sighing heavily, Angelica slowed her pace and steadied herself.
No, it wasn’t that. She braced herself. Because the reality Hope was going to bring down on her was exactly what she didn’t want to hear.
She pulled the microphone from her waistband and tugged the line out of it. Hope did the same in silence.
They couldn’t go anywhere outside of this building. They’d be accosted as soon as they stepped outside, and the last few days of being stuck inside without ever seeing daylight, without ever feeling the wind on her cheeks was too much.
“We have to talk about this,” Hope pleaded.
“Not yet.” Angelica swallowed hard. Talking to Eva about their relationship had been one step too far. Angelica wasn’t comfortable with Eva knowing about what was going on until she had more of an answer about where they stood in their relationship.
“When?”
“When will you have an answer for me?” Angelica crossed her arms and looked directly into Hope’s crystalline eyes.
“An answer…?” Hope trailed off.
“Do you want an open relationship or not? I can’t go to bat for this if I don’t know what I’m fighting for.” Angelica tensed.
“Angel…” Hope paused. She reached for Angelica’s arms and then stopped, pulling away slightly and hesitating. “An open relationship doesn’t change how much I love you.”
Angelica’s chest warmed, and the sensation started to fill the rest of her body. Her cheeks heated. She looked around before shaking her head and pulling that feeling back in on itself. “Love doesn’t matter until we have answers.”
“Are you going to leave me if I tell you I want an open relationship?”
“No. I just…” Angelica stopped, her jaw slack. “I just want to know.”
“But if you’re not going to leave, then what difference does it make for us in how we talk about who we are to each other?” Hope touched her then, skimming her hands down Angelica’s arms until they could wrap their fingers together. “I love you.”
That warmth started again, and Angelica couldn’t stop it this time.
Her lips curled upward slightly. Hope did love her.
She wasn’t doubting that. But navigating an open relationship with the entire world looking in on them seemed to be more than they were prepared for.
Or at least more than Angelica was prepared to deal with.
“I love you too.”
“So, maybe, we tackle this scandal head on.” Hope bent down slightly, meeting Angelica’s gaze. “Maybe we stop hiding and we just let everyone know—officially.”
Angelica’s lips thinned. She still didn’t like that idea.
“There you two are.” Florence’s voice was sharp.
Hope pulled away, and Angelica stiffened. The last thing she wanted was to deal with Florence right now.
“We need to talk about the script. I just watched the dailies and neither one of you used it when you were talking with Ronan and Elsie.” Florence crossed her arms, a stern look crossing her features.
“It didn’t flow naturally.” Angelica immediately had her back up. What was it with Florence and this damn script idea? She’d agreed to it in the beginning, yes, but the more they filmed, the less it seemed to work for the way the show was structured.
“But you could have used parts of it, and that could have formed the structure of the conversation.” Florence turned the entirety of her annoyance on Angelica.
And good riddance, Angelica was done arguing with people. She just wanted to be left alone in the quiet of the work she needed to get done.
“I need you to use the script.” Florence didn’t look as though she was going to budge on this one.
“Sometimes it just works better without it,” Hope said, her tone much gentler than what Angelica was feeling.
Because she wanted to yell. And she kept biting her cheek to keep her temper in check. She couldn’t figure out where the hell that was coming from. It wasn’t entirely directed at Florence, she did know that, but she was frustrated. And she hated having everything thrown in her face back-to-back.
“I’m not using it.” Angelica lifted her chin defiantly. “It doesn’t fit with what I’m doing.”
“Ange.” Florence tilted her head down as if she was talking to a child. “Surely we can come to some sort of agreement about this.”
“There’s no compromising.” Angelica gave her a hard stare back. “I’m willing to work with you on a script for moments that call for it, but in the day-to-day of filming, I won’t use one.”
“Now who’s being the problem child.” Florence pressed her lips into a thin line.
Angelica’s back went up instantly.
“I don’t think that was called for,” Hope said, nearly stepping between them.
“I agree with Ange that the scripts have made it difficult to make the scenes as emotional and tactile as they need to be for the audience. They’re expecting drama, and we need to make sure it’s there in an unmanufactured sense. ”
Florence tightened her jaw, the muscles bulging at the sides. And she looked like she was going to keep on arguing. Angelica straightened her back and stood up firmly.
“Ronan’s thirty minutes are up. I need to check on him.” She didn’t wait for anything else from Florence or from Hope. She just walked away. Maybe she was being the difficult one now. Maybe it had always been her from the start. Maybe Josef hadn’t been entirely wrong about that.
And if it was the truth, then she needed to do something about that.
Maybe tomorrow.