Chapter 25
Chapter
Twenty-Five
Ansel brushed the rouge against Hope’s cheeks, tutting at her.
As if she was doing something wrong, but she knew she wasn’t.
Biting her lip, Hope looked around the small hotel room that they’d converted into a press release room.
She hadn’t anticipated she’d be stuck in here, that the bed and other furniture would be shoved into a corner, and that she’d be sitting in a chair with Ansel fussing and Cadence narrowing her gaze, and Florence judging from the corner.
Angelica had whisked herself away early in the morning to make phone calls and get some work done before filming started for the day, and as soon as Hope had stepped into the staging area, dressed for the day and with her makeup done, Florence had told her to turn around and head straight here.
With very little explanation.
“There, I think that should do it.” Ansel straightened his back. “I wish they’d told me to prep you for a press release instead of filming this morning.”
“You’re not the only one,” Hope mumbled under her breath.
Had they even told Angelica what was happening? Because something in the pit of her stomach told her they hadn’t. Florence pushed up onto her toes and rolled her shoulders.
“Ansel, hurry up.”
“I’m done!” Ansel said, but he dipped his hand forward to brush something else over Hope’s cheek. He always had one more thing he wanted to do. The normalcy of that made her smile.
“What exactly is this press release for?” Hope asked, tilting to the side to make eye contact with Florence.
“Oh, um...” Florence’s brow wrinkled. She looked to Cadence and then back to Hope. “Logan didn’t talk to you?”
“No. I was a bit busy last night.” Hope had seen his missed phone calls, but she hadn’t called him back or even bothered to listen to the messages yet.
“Can I have you all clear the room?” Florence made her voice loud enough that everyone could hear her.
It took about two minutes, but eventually, the door shut and it was just the two of them staring at each other, Hope in the chair and Florence with her arms crossed.
“We thought it’d be a good idea to put out a press release. ”
Hope furrowed her brow. “Sure, but what’s it about?”
“Angelica and you.” Florence’s face pulled tight, and it was the first time Hope honestly thought she might be nervous. “There’s been a lot of questions, and we hoped you could clear them up through a release.”
“That I could?” Hope’s heart hammered. “I’m not… Ange would be much better at this than me.”
“No, I don’t think she would.” Florence put her hands to her sides and flexed her fingers. “They need to see the love between the two of you.”
“And you don’t think they’ll see that with her?
” Hope frowned. Because surely it was the opposite.
Everyone could see how enamored Angelica was, couldn’t they?
Cadence told them that every time they filmed one of the shorts together.
Or was she just being nice? Fuck. Now Hope was second guessing everything.
“No, we don’t.” Florence sighed heavily.
“You know as well as anyone that Ange isn’t exactly personable.
Now, the goal is for you to talk about your relationship at whatever level you’re comfortable.
Don’t go into any details you don’t want to.
Just confirm that the two of you are in a relationship, that you’re in love, and that it’s not affecting filming. ”
Hope frowned. This felt so impersonal. And her relationship with Angelica was anything but that. Rolling her shoulders, she looked directly at Florence. “Ange really should be here with me.”
“This was a decision made by production.”
“Without Ange’s input, I’m sure.” Hope glared. “Because I can’t in a million years believe that she’d agree to this.”
Florence stuttered. “R-right. Angelica was kept out of that decision because of the conflict of interest.”
Hope snorted and shook her head. “This isn’t the way to make her believe that our relationship isn’t going to affect production of the show, but also, let’s talk about how you just asked me to lie.”
“Lie?” Florence tensed.
“You told me to tell the world that this hasn’t affected production, when you very clearly just said it has. I won’t lie.” Hope ground her molars together. “I’m ready whenever you are.”
Florence didn’t say anything else, but soon enough the room was filled with people, and Hope was fitted with an earpiece and microphone. She listened as she was cued up to be on the screen and smiled as soon as the light was red.
“Today we have Chef Hope Lawrence with us from Hotel Bombshell. They’re right in the middle of filming their fourth season, and Hope’s taken time out of her busy filming schedule to spend some time with us. Thank you, Hope, for joining us today.”
“You’re so welcome.” Hope grinned even more brightly, staring into the black hole of the camera. She hated doing interviews like this, because it always felt like she was talking into a void. “It’s a pleasure to be here.”
“We wanted to talk about this Bombshell news, pardon the pun, that you and Angelica Shields dropped at the beginning of filming.” The voice was chirpy, young, but Hope couldn’t quite tell if it was feminine or masculine, and no one had given her a name.
Or if she had been given one, she’d forgotten it already.
“Absolutely, I’m here to tell all.” She wasn’t quite sure why she said it like that, but nerves and being thrown for a loop were definitely pushing her off her game. Angelica would be able to handle this with ease. Instead, they’d stuck the worst person possible in front of the camera.
“How did your relationship start? What was the moment that you knew there was something more between you?”
Oh fuck. This wasn’t starting out easy. Hope nervously moved the pads of her fingers against her knee and grimaced as she looked at the camera.
“I think you can always say that Angelica and I were close, we do work very closely together on the show, including figuring out how to navigate tense moments together.”
“So from the moment you met?”
“Um… No, not…” Hope winced. “Everything seemed to really take off last season, and while we were on break from filming, our relationship continued to grow.”
There, hopefully that would distract from the question that Hope had screwed up on.
“What’s it like to work with someone you’re in a relationship with? You’ve done that twice now with two relationships in two very prominent positions.”
Hope’s heart thudded wildly. “It’s difficult navigating the different spaces sometimes, and to pull ourselves out of the personal and into the work, but it can also be really rewarding in that sense too, and work to our advantage. I won’t lie and say it was easy and we never had a problem.”
“It sounds like there’s a story or two there.”
“Sure.” Hope pressed her lips together tightly, but she refused to elaborate. “It’s been a long walk to where we are now, and Angelica and I have worked hard to make sure that we’re as strong as we could be going into filming this season.”
Those words sounded hollow, even to her ears. Hope twisted her hands together in her lap.
“I mean… we were strong before, but we talked a lot about how our relationship would look before we started filming.” That was a lie. They had talked about talking about it, but never actually did it. She and Rex had after the divorce, but—
“I know this is a personal question to ask, but was there a struggle for you in figuring out your sexuality? Like what was the first tip off that you were a lesbian?”
Hope froze. “I…” All she could hear was her heart pounding in her ears, the rushing of her breath like waves so loud that she couldn’t make it stop. “I’m not.”
Coming out hadn’t been part of this plan.
She’d come on here to talk about her relationship with Angelica, not to explain her sexuality, not to be…
this was part of it, wasn’t it? She’d never really labeled herself as queer before, as someone who was other or different and no one had really treated her like that, not until this moment. Not until…
“You’re not a lesbian?”
“I’m…” She had to pick a label, didn’t she? But what the hell was she? She loved Rex. And she loved Angelica. And she’d loved before either of them. But what the hell did that mean?
“You don’t have to answer the question if it’s too personal.” The voice sounded softer now.
Hope sucked in a breath, but it didn’t ease the tension in her chest.
“There have been several video releases of you and Angelica recently, though the source is choosing to remain anonymous—”
Hope’s stomach lurched.
“—one of those videos has been identified to be from New Orleans, when you and Angelica were there to work with Chateau Orleans.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
“That would imply your relationship with Angelica started well before last season.”
What the hell do I say?
“So when you say your relationship started last season, do you mean a formal relationship?”
Hope panicked. Fear rose from her belly and clutched her throat, tightening its squeeze around her and making it impossible to breathe and speak. “We…” She gasped for breath. She needed air to speak. She needed words to say. “We…last season, yes.”
“Cut it!” Florence’s voice rang through the small hotel room. The red light went off, indicating nothing was live.
Hope’s vision blurred before it cleared.
She ripped the earpiece from her and then the microphone from her shirt. She stood up and raced out of the room. She said nothing to anyone. She pulled down on her chef’s coat and walked through the lobby, making eye contact with Angelica, but she said nothing as she sped up her walk.
She’d fucked up.
After the night of calm and connection, she’d gone and fucked everything up this morning, and Angelica would find out about it shortly enough.
Hope bypassed the dining room and stepped outside into the small courtyard, the one place they’d managed to keep free of paparazzi.
She rolled her shoulders and took her first breath of fresh air in hours.
“Fuck,” she said, digging her fingers into her hair and pulling sharply at the strands.
She checked her watch and took five minutes for the panic that had grabbed her to wash through her as best as she could manage. She scuffed her shoe against the sidewalk, she pulled her hair even harder, she did everything she could to keep herself from screaming out into the abyss.
With her five minutes up, Hope walked back inside and headed straight for the kitchen. Cadence paled, but she didn’t say anything. Had they all witnessed that disastrous interview? Or had Florence called and told her how bad it had all gone? Hope didn’t even care.
She just needed to throw herself into something—anything—that would take her mind off that. “Trey! Enzo! How’s prep going for tonight?”
Trey popped his head out from the freezer. “Good, Chef.”
“Good.” Hope put her hands on her hips and surveyed the kitchen.
“Let’s run through the entire menu. The restaurant is going to be filled tonight, we have extra staff coming in to help out short-term since we know there will be an influx.
We need to get them trained on everything involved in the menu.
Chef?” Hope looked directly at Trey. “I want you to take charge of teaching everyone the ins and outs of this menu.”
“Yes, Chef,” Trey responded, but he looked nervous.
Of course he would. Hope had abandoned him after one dish last night, and they still had four more they needed to learn together. Though they weren’t difficult by any means. She’d purposely kept the menu short and simple and elegant.
“Come on. Let’s get cooking. Maria will be in to train the wait staff in two hours.”
Hope took one more glance around before she lost herself in what she did best.
Cooking.