Chapter 31
Chapter
Thirty-One
“Finally. I need to talk to you.” Hope barged into the reception area, food spilled all down the front of her chef’s coat and pants, but she wasn’t going to change.
She didn’t have time. They were back for a quick reload of everything before they started up the prep for the evening meal, and what she really needed was to talk to Angelica.
Angelica who didn’t even look up at her or meet her eyes.
“This food truck thing is amazing.” Hope leaned over the reception desk, right next to Angelica, their arms brushing in the move, but Angelica kept her face down on the computer screen that she was staring at. “Kora knows so much about the business, it’s inspiring.”
“Good for you.” Angelica hit a few buttons on the keyboard but still refused to look up at Hope.
“I think she should probably be running most of the hotel, if I’m honest. She understands the basics of business and how to make improvements.
I’m not sure how the food truck isn’t bringing in money or breaking even.
” Hope bit her lip, lifting her hand to put it on top of Angelica’s to get her attention, but again, Angelica barely even budged.
What the hell was this all about?
She shouldn’t be getting the cold shoulder. They’d worked through all of their problems so far. They’d talked every single day basically. They understood each other, and here Angelica was, not giving Hope anything.
“Have you had a chance to dive deeper into the numbers?” Hope hesitated, but she kept her fingers curled around Angelica’s wrist, fully aware that the camera picked up on everything.
But again, what did it matter? The entire world knew they were together now, didn’t they?
And by the time this would air, they certainly would.
“No.” The word was clipped, sharp, and straight to the point.
And that single word rocked Hope’s world. Because this wasn’t the Angelica Hope had gotten used to in the last few years. She’d expect this from season one Angelica, but not the woman she’d fallen head over heels in love with.
“Angel,” Hope lowered her tone, vying for Angelica’s attention and trying to break through that icy barrier. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t have time to deal with the food truck. I don’t have time to deal with the finances. I don’t have…” Angelica stopped abruptly. She pressed her lips together hard and shook her head slowly. “I’ll look at the numbers tonight.”
“O…kay?” Hope furrowed her brow in confusion. What was that all about? She looked around, trying to catch Rex’s gaze or maybe FloRo if she was around, but she couldn’t see anyone who could give her some sort of indication about what was happening. “How’s everything going here?”
“Fine.”
So they were back to one-word answers.
Hope held her breath tightly to the point that it hurt her chest. “Okay, well, I’m going to change since the tomato sauce decided to explode on me in the truck today, and then I’m going to help Kora with prep for tonight.”
Angelica didn’t even budge or acknowledge her.
She kept her eyes locked on the computer screen in front of her as she scrolled through information.
Hope squinted at it, recognizing the payroll and expenses for the hotel.
So Angelica was actually looking at it, and yet, she’d just told Hope that she wasn’t.
She almost said something.
She almost stopped filming.
Instead, Hope brushed her fingers along Angelica’s shoulder and squeezed lightly before stepping back.
Whatever was going on shouldn’t happen in the presence of other people or on camera, and Hope could easily respect that.
They’d talk later, when they had time to themselves, even if she had to beg Rex to watch Eva for a little that night.
Biting her lip, Hope walked away from Angelica without saying anything else.
She immediately went up to her room and stripped out of the disgusting clothes she was in, needing to be in something clean and fresh for dinner service.
She’d observed the previous night, and she had a few tweaks that she wanted to put into place with Kora, just a few things to help streamline the process even better than it already was, but they were so minor.
Then again, they did need to film her doing something, and she largely felt useless to Kora and the crew. Rather, she was learning more from them than she’d anticipated. And she was absolutely taking all of that information in and absorbing it.
She had one foot in her pant leg when the door rattled.
“Eva, give me a minute!”
She hadn’t expected them to be back so soon from wherever they’d gone.
Not that she could keep track of the schedule that Eva had.
She could barely keep track of her own schedule lately.
Quickly sliding into a new pair of pants and pulling a clean chef’s jacket over her shoulders and arms before she opened the door to find Eva standing on the other side.
“I tried to keep her away.” Rishal, the nanny, frowned. “But she insisted on talking to you.”
“I did.” Eva shot Rishal an annoyed look. “And I will.”
Eva stepped inside and shut the door in Rishal’s face.
“Eva! That was rude.”
“Rude but necessary.”
Hope furrowed her brow, staring down at her daughter, who was growing up faster than she’d ever dreamed.
She wasn’t the little girl who had started coming with her to set four years ago.
She was a pre-teen with the attitude to boot, but more in tune with herself and who she was than ever before. And Hope loved that.
“You better have a good reason.” Hope bent down to slide on the black non-slip shoes that were part of her Hotel Bombshell uniform.
“Ange is crying.”
Hope froze. Her entire body ran cold. She looked into Eva’s blue eyes which matched her own and waited for more of an explanation, but clearly her daughter hadn’t hit the tell-all stage. “She’s crying?”
Eva nodded and then rolled her eyes. “That means you’re supposed to run to her, Mom. You take care of people you like. You don’t just let them cry on their own.”
Hope narrowed her gaze and pursed her lips, probably doing a damn good impersonation of Angelica. “I’ll find out what’s going on. But she was filming five minutes ago, so what do you mean she’s crying?”
“Like I saw her walking away from the staging area crying.” Eva rolled her eyes again.
“Why was she crying?”
“I don’t know!” Eva threw her hands up in the air. “That’s your job to figure out, not mine. I’m just here to report it.”
Hope hadn’t anticipated this. Since they’d told Eva about their relationship, Eva had apparently decided to take on the role of the go-between. Which, while that was helpful right now, was also oddly annoying. And something Hope was going to have to put an end to soon.
“Mom! You’re supposed to be freaking out?”
“Because Ange was crying?” Hope furrowed her brow.
“She wasn’t just crying. Well, she was just crying. She doesn’t cry. I’ve known Ange all my life, Mom, and I’ve never seen her cry before.”
Hope stilled at that. All her life? Not quite true, but it had been four years, which was close to half of Eva’s life at this point.
And most of what she would remember. Had it really been that long?
It felt like they were sneaking kisses in New Orleans just yesterday.
Hope bit her lip and cocked her head at Eva.
“It’s normal for people to—”
“This wasn’t normal, Mom.” Oh, that whine she added to Mom. Eva was pulling out the full works for this one, wasn’t she?
“Tell me what you saw and what happened then.” Hope stilled herself, waiting for Eva to answer her and explain because thus far, she hadn’t gotten enough of an explanation.
“She was crying. Like full tears down her face, ruining her make up. Ansel will have a fit. I went to talk to her, and she didn’t even say hi to me.” Eva wrinkled her nose as if she was offended by that.
“If she was upset, then I’m sure she didn’t mean anything by it.”
“I know.” Eva rolled her eyes, yet again.
Teenage years were going to be brutal, weren’t they? Hope clenched her fists at her sides. “Where was she going?”
“Don’t know.” Eva crossed her arms and popped out her hip. “She was walking toward the back hallway.”
Hope pulled her lips to the side and glanced toward the door. “I have to film—”
“Mom. This is important. I…” Eva stopped, and she came in closer, taking Hope’s hand. “I’ve never seen her like this before. It… worries me.”
Hope’s stomach sank. Eva wasn’t one to exaggerate ever, and if she was thinking something was that far off with Angelica, then she must be right.
And she’d left filming in the middle of a scene, shortly after Hope had left her, which meant…
she hadn’t even been talking to anyone. Unless there was an altercation, but there wouldn’t have been that much time.
“Mom!”
“What?” Hope snapped out of her thoughts.
“Go to her. That’s what you’re supposed to do!” Eva waved her hands from Hope toward the door, as if shooing her out of it.
“Yeah. I’ll go.” Hope held her breath tightly before she blew it out. “Thanks, Eva.”
“Get out.” Eva pushed on her back and shoved her out of the door.
Rishal stood on the other side of it, looking vexing concerned and confused. “She wouldn’t tell me what was wrong.”
“It’s nothing really.” Hope shrugged, trying to keep the situation under control and not let anyone else know just how bad this might be.
Because the last thing Angelica would want was for the entire crew to be worried about her.
She abhorred that kind of attention. “Thanks for putting up with her eccentricities.”
Eva cleared her throat. “Mom!”
“I’m going!” Hope put her hands up and walked backward down the hall for a few steps before spinning around and walking as quickly as she could without looking as though she was rushed toward the elevator.
Finally out of sight, she jammed her finger into the button multiple times as she waited for the elevator to arrive, but it just seemed to take forever.
When she finally reached the main floor, Hope stepped out and looked around wildly. Crew milled about. The lobby seemed to be full of life, but she knew that looks were deceiving. Rex caught her eye and started toward her. Hope stayed still.
“Where is she?” Hope asked.
Rex shook his head. “I’m not sure. She literally said nothing, just started crying, covered her face, and walked off. What’s going on?”
Hope tensed. She had no idea what was going on.
Nothing at all. And she should know. She and Angelica were in a relationship.
Everyone would expect her to know what was going through that head of hers, to be the one to smooth things out when there were upsets like this.
But that had never been her job before. She was the one who needed cleaning up after, not Angelica.
“I don’t know,” Hope whispered. “We haven’t exactly had a chance to talk, and she’s not exactly someone who pours her heart out every five seconds.”
“Fair.” Rex frowned. “She walked off toward the back.” Rex pointed down the hallway.
“Thanks.” Hope took a step to follow whatever trail she could find of Angelica.
“Hope!” FloRo’s voice echoed through the hallway. “Where do you think you’re going?”
Hope spun around, facing down Florence, anger in her face, cheeks red, and eyes wide. “I’m going to find Ange.”
Florence shook her head. “No, I need you to get back to filming. You’ve already missed most of prep.”
Hope glanced from Florence to Rex, who stepped back and crossed his arms, but he turned slightly toward Hope, and she took that as a sign that he was in support of whatever decision she made. And that was all Hope needed. She wouldn’t make the same mistake again.
Not this time.
“Do you know what upset Ange so much?” Hope asked, crossing her arms and leaning forward.
“No.” Florence sighed. “She’s been moody lately.”
“Moody.” Hope could have cursed that word to the moon and back.
And she would have loved to. “Ange isn’t someone who’s moody, not unless something dramatic and deeply disturbing is happening.
You’d know that if you’d been around the last few seasons, but since you weren’t, I’m letting you in on that.
Rex can back me up on that one. Hell, anyone who was on set when we were in Vegas can do that. ”
“What’s your point, Hope?” Florence raised an eyebrow at her, one that was meant to get her to move along and do as she was told, but Hope wasn’t going to give in.
“I’m going to find out what’s wrong.”
“You need to go back to the truck and film.”
“Nope. I’m not doing that.” Hope held her ground. “Fire me if you want. I won’t do it.”
“We have a schedule we need to stick to, and I know that Ange would want us to—”
“Yeah, she might, and she might be ticked off at me for fucking with the schedule.” Hope’s voice rose louder, catching the attention of a few crew members nearby.
“But you know what matters more than a fucking filming schedule?” Hope waited only two beats before she continued, “People! Don’t make the same mistake as your predecessor.
Because we know exactly how that’ll end up for both of you. ”
Spinning on her toes, Hope walked away.
Fuck Florence.
Fuck the schedule.
She was going to find Angelica and take care of her, no matter the cost.