Chapter 35
Chapter
Thirty-Five
“What the hell did I just walk into?” Hope’s eyes bugged as she stared around the hotel. Not just the hotel, the entire town. This was the last thing she’d expected to find in Georgia of all places.
Bavarian.
Everywhere.
In the shapes of the buildings, the colors chosen on the walls, the decorations, everything looked like it was straight out of Germany or Austria in the olden days. Hope didn’t even know where to go with this one. She’d been told, of course, but she hadn’t expected anything quite like this.
She stopped short as the rest of the crew milled around, working on setting up. She raised her chin to the ceiling and just stared in awe. She hadn’t even known that a town like this existed in the United States. Not at all.
“You didn’t look it up before we arrived, did you?” Angelica said, standing next to her.
“Nope,” Hope answered. “Didn’t exactly have time.”
Angelica hummed, but she seemed pleased about being here. “Do you know what’s going on with Lyric? She tight-lipped about it?”
“No, sorry.” Hope turned to look directly into Angelica’s eyes. “But I noticed it too.”
Angelica frowned. “I’ve tried to pry, but I don’t want to push too hard.”
“Sometimes it just takes a well-worded question to get an answer.” Hope winked at her.
But Angelica paled instantly. She immediately looked away and around the reception area, putting space between them.
Hope stilled, picking up on the rejection or avoidance instantly.
But she was tired of chasing after Angelica—at least for right now.
And to what end really? Angelica was the one who had to learn to trust her, not the other way around.
“Angel?” Hope reached for her, giving in to her emotional needs.
Angelica took her hand and squeezed before letting go and putting space between them again. “Logan’s joining us this week.”
“He is?” Hope furrowed her brow. “Why?”
“To observe me.” Angelica frowned. “The investigation isn’t done, Hope.” Angelica stepped in closer, lowering her voice so that people couldn’t overhear easily. “And someone needs to supervise my behavior.”
“Is that why you’re being distant?” Hope asked, her heart pounding at just the thought of asking that question.
Angelica pursed her lips and shook her head. “No, that’s not why. I’ve had a lot to think about lately, and what I want going forward.”
“That sounds ominous.”
“It might be.” Angelica’s lips pulled upward into a gentle smile. “We should find some time to talk. If not while here, then when we return home on break.”
Hope liked the sound of that. Home. She tugged Angelica a little closer and planted a kiss on her cheek. “Yes, we’ll find time to talk.”
“Good.” Angelica smiled at her. “Because so much has happened in the last few weeks, and I feel like we’re barely keeping our heads above water.”
“You’re right about that. The last thing we need is more to add onto it.”
Angelica hummed, and Hope knew that there was something she wasn’t sharing, but that she was working up to it. So she stayed still and quiet, just waiting for Angelica to get the words to her tongue and to say them out loud.
“I pulled the trigger on a civil suit with Josef,” Angelica murmured.
“You what?”
Angelica bit her lip and looked up, directly into Hope’s eyes. “I didn’t want to add anything, not right now, but his harassment isn’t stopping, Hope. It’s only getting worse. And I need to put my foot down, create boundaries. Just like I did with my family.”
So the two were connected, even if Angelica didn’t want to see it that way entirely.
“Sounds like you have a plan.” She tried to keep the bitterness out of her voice, but she wasn’t sure she managed it.
“I realize you’re very used to living on your own and doing life however you want, but…
” Hope sighed a little. “It does hurt when you don’t at least talk to me before you make fairly major decisions like this, or when big events happen and you take days to tell me about them.
I love you, Angel, but it sometimes feels like you still keep me at arm’s length. ”
Angelica’s lips parted in surprise, but she didn’t say anything. “You’re right.”
“I… what?” Hope had expected some kind of argument. She really had. Or pushback of some sort. “I’m right?”
“I shared with you about my mother, and that…was difficult. No one else knows still, and I’d rather keep it that way. But you’re right about the rest of it. The harassment affects us both, and I need to remember to rely on you more than I have been.” Angelica squeezed Hope’s fingers. “And I—”
“Good! You’re both here. Florence and I need to talk to you about forming that plan.” Logan put his hand on Hope’s shoulder and his other one on Angelica’s, breaking up their quiet conversation.
Hope’s stomach sank. Right when she felt they were getting to the meat of a conversation, they were interrupted again. Would it ever be easy for them?
“What plan?” Hope asked.
“Didn’t Ange tell you?” Logan furrowed his brow and stared at her.
“I didn’t. I’m sorry.” Angelica looked directly at Hope, the apology in her gaze. “Logan and Florence want to make a plan to start to clean up the press disaster we’ve had so far this season.”
“Oh.” Hope sighed heavily. “So what’s the plan?”
“No, you misunderstand.” Angelica pressed her lips together hard, locking her eyes onto Hope’s. “We’re all making the plan together.”
This wasn’t how things typically worked.
Usually Hope was thrown in last minute and just told what she was doing and what she was supposed to say.
Then again, that didn’t exactly work last time.
Maybe this was to help correct that disaster.
Heat flooded her cheeks as embarrassment and shame grabbed hold of her again.
“Florence is waiting for us. We’re going to snag a conference room at a local restaurant to give the crew time to set up and be out of their way.
They don’t need to hear this conversation either.
” Logan pushed slightly on their shoulders, guiding them around and back out toward the front of the hotel.
Hope’s shoulder brushed Angelica’s, and they shared a similar look. Neither was thrilled about this or the fact that their conversation had just been interrupted. But duty called, and they could figure it out from there.
Ushered into a waiting Suburban, Hope slid next to Angelica and snagged her hand. Angelica instantly laced their fingers together tightly, but neither one of them said anything. When they were seated, with wine in front of them, Hope shot Angelica an amused expression.
“Are you wining and dining us?” Hope asked.
Florence paled instantly, and Logan blanched.
Angelica, however, hid an amused smirk behind her glass of wine, which Hope knew wasn’t her preferred drink.
But most people wouldn’t know that, and Angelica wouldn’t ever tell them either.
That was her superpower. Keep everyone at arm’s length, except Hope.
“We thought this might help you be more amenable to the conversation,” Florence reached for her own glass of wine.
Angelica hummed, settling her hands in her lap with her legs crossed. Hope couldn’t look too closely, otherwise she’d be decidedly distracted by Angelica’s knee and the creamy skin on her thigh. She flicked her gaze up, meeting Angelica’s amused stare before she looked back to Logan and FloRo.
“Why couldn’t you to do that during an interview? Hmm?” Florence asked.
“Do what?” Hope furrowed her brow and shook her head.
“Look like you want to eat—” Florence stopped talking, her cheeks going bright red. “Look like you two are in love.”
Hope had to stop the laugh that wanted to burble up in her throat. But the embarrassment on FloRo’s face was priceless.
“You chose for Hope to be interviewed on her own, remember?” Angelica gave Florence and Logan a pointed stare. “So there wasn’t an opportunity for it.”
That was an I told you so if Hope had ever heard one before. She snagged her wine glass to wet her parched lips. They could play this room like a well-tuned fiddle if they wanted to, and FloRo and Logan were about to learn that very hard lesson.
“Yes, all on my own, when you were trying to sway the audience toward your thoughts on our relationship. Seems like a missed opportunity if you ask me.” Hope looked at Angelica again, making sure to give them the show that they’d denied the rest of the world.
But now that they didn’t have to hide anything, what was the point in not even trying to use it to their advantage?
“If you wanted to show off our relationship and have people focus on that instead of when exactly our relationship started, I think having the two of us in the room to answer questions would be the way to do that.” Angelica reached for Hope’s hand on top of the table, covering it and squeezing lightly. “Don’t you?”
“Oh yes,” Hope agreed instantly. “Like those cooking shorts Cadence films. Those are perfect examples of our relationship.”
Florence looked like she was about to burst with anger, and Logan looked as though he’d just eaten something that was really upsetting his stomach. They probably should ease up on them soon, but this was so much fun at the same time.
“So, what’s the plan then?” Hope set her wine glass down and changed her tone to mean business.
But she kept her hand under Angelica’s. She’d take physical touch from Angelica any day that she could get it.
“Because I assume you didn’t drag us here to bribe us with a fancy dinner without a plan in place. ”
“Logan?” Florence squeaked.
Logan groaned and rubbed his hands over his cheeks before he leaned back in his chair. “You’re right. People need to see the two of you together in order to make that the image that comes to their mind first. And they need to see you like this.”
“So an interview, then,” Angelica replied quickly.
“No,” Logan said.
“Well, yes,” Florence chimed in.
“Which is it, FloRo? Because you can’t have both.” Hope waggled her eyebrows at Florence.
“Well, you can.” Angelica’s chuckle was pure pleasure and amusement.
“You’re right,” Hope said slowly. She hadn’t been quite prepared for that joke, especially coming from Angelica at a time when discussion of relationships was coming up, but here it was. “You can.” Hope focused back on Florence. “I’m not a lesbian.”
“I…don’t need details.” Florence put her hands up in the air as if to ward them off.
“Pity, they’re fine.”
“Hope,” Angelica said with a bit of a tease and a warning. “Let’s at least entertain their idea. Hmm?”
“Fine.” Hope focused back on Logan and Florence, once again waiting to pay attention to what they were going to tell them. “What’s the plan?”
“I know this is going to be leading a bit when it comes to how you’re planning on fixing this hotel, but what if part of the plan was to help them make a main event that drew people here?
Think Oktoberfest but in the spring. We won’t call it that, but something similar.
We can set up a mock one on a small scale and have the two of you attend as part of the draw.
” Logan crossed his arms, as if that was the extent of his plan.
Hope narrowed her eyes at him, still not entirely sure how all of this was going to work out in the end. “How is that going to get us good press?”
“Because you’ll do a few interviews there, we’ll invite journalists as PR for the show, and they’ll snap photos of you.” Florence nodded, as if she already had all of this planned out.
“And social media, of course,” Logan chimed in.
“I don’t do social media,” Angelica responded. “Lyric manages all of that for me.”
“But Hope has quite the following on social media, especially Instagram.” Logan pointed at her.
“I do,” Hope answered. “But I can’t be doing interviews and taking photos or video for content, and most of my content is professionally made.”
“We want you two to go live while there,” Logan said.
“And dressed up for the event,” Florence added.
“Dressed up?” Hope asked.
“What do you mean dressed up?” Angelica said at the same time.
“In clothes that would suit the event,” Florence explained.
“You mean like a costume party.” Hope couldn’t believe it, and she didn’t think that Angelica would ever give in to that demand.
“Call it what you like, it’ll be unique, it’ll show you off relaxing, and you two can enjoy yourselves.
Lyric and Cadence will be in charge of your phones to help make the content for the evening.
It’ll come off like it’s organic and real, not made up to be put in front of cameras.
” Florence raised her eyebrows at them, like she expected an answer immediately.
Hope leaned back in her chair flabbergasted. Who had come up with this wild idea anyway? Did they even know and understand Angelica? Because she’d hate this. She’d despise it.
“Let’s do it,” Angelica said.
“What?” Hope hissed out the word, tensing instantly. “Really?”
Angelica shrugged slightly. “I’d like to see you dressed up like the St. Pauli Girl.”
“I’m shocked, genuinely.” Hope laughed, her jaw nearly on the floor.
“Why would that surprise you? You know how much I like beer.” Angelica gave her a pointed look before smirking.
“And how much I like my women,” Angelica murmured that into her glass of wine, tightening her grasp on Hope’s fingers.
“Let’s try it. It’s something new, and I think Lyric could use getting out a bit. ”
Hope hummed in response to that. “Fine. I guess I’ll be your St. Pauli Girl.”
“Oh I love a good bar wench.”
“Angel!”
But all Angelica did was laugh.