Chapter 39
Chapter
Thirty-Nine
Hope stepped into the office and froze. Angelica sat at the table with Daph and Frannie, notebooks out in front of them, iPads at the ready, along with phones. She’d wanted Jenesis to be here, but they were working on a new menu plan in the kitchen while testing out recipes.
Wrinkling her nose, Hope tightened her grasp on the plate of food she’d brought for them to snack on and made eye contact with Angelica.
Her stomach swirled. They hadn’t had a chance to talk last night.
Three beers had taken Angelica out, and as soon as they’d gotten back to Mondial, they’d slipped into the bed and fallen asleep.
And that morning, Angelica had snuck out of the bed to catch up on work and make it right with Ansel.
Sitting in the one empty chair, which was obviously meant for her, Hope set the plate down in the center of the table. She leaned over to Angelica, making sure that her lips brushed Angelica’s ear as she murmured as quietly as possible, “You made sure someone bleached the table, right?”
Angelica immediately started chuckling, her lips pressing into a thin line as she tried to contain her laughter.
“Just checking because of the food,” Hope added.
“I made sure, trust me.” Angelica turned slightly, catching Hope unexpectedly and pushing their faces a little closer than usual.
Hope pulled away, returning fully to her seat so that they could focus on the work at hand. “Has Ange briefed you on the plan?”
“I haven’t yet,” Angelica answered for them. “The idea for how to transform Mondial into a brand-new hotel and save it is to turn a guest’s entire stay into an experience they’ll never forget.”
“What do you mean?” Frannie asked.
Daph had been suspiciously quiet since they’d reamed her and Timothy over their relationship, which had felt oddly like the pot calling the kettle black.
“From the moment a guest steps in the front doors, well, honestly we can go even before that, in how all emails and communications are framed, it’ll be an experience as if they’re truly going to another country.” Angelica tapped her fingers one after the other rapidly across the tabletop.
Hope had to stop herself from staring at them, because she wanted to be doing something else with that hand. Last night had been lovely, but she’d wanted a different ending to it. She could wait for whenever they had another moment, though.
“You’re talking about changing all of our communications, from reservations, to the website, to everything.” Frannie shook her head, the look of disbelief obvious.
“We are,” Hope agreed. “To make it a full well-rounded experience.”
Frannie bit her lip nervously and shifted her gaze to Daph. Was she expecting Daph to object and then push to get her way?
“When guests arrive, we want them greeted by the hospitality team who has been specifically trained to greet them in an accent, in a few words of German perhaps, and we want to change up the uniform to be more authentic. We want to integrate the technology that everyone looks for in a hotel stay more seamlessly and to make it less obviously glaring and contrasting with the aesthetic that’s already here.
” Angelica pulled up something on her iPad and spun it around so that Daph and Frannie could look at it. “Here.”
Hope could see the top of the screen, and she was impressed with what Angelica had managed to pull together so quickly.
It was a very rough plan, especially considering they were changing the plan overall for this hotel and how they were going to fix it.
Production was going to have a fit over the budget, but it’d do.
“When it comes to the food, Jenesis is working on a new menu, but also meals that would be served in style and flare. We’re hoping to have a sample service prepared for you to experience tomorrow while you’re working with Angelica on all of the changes for the rest of the hotel.
” Hope snagged a few pieces of pita bread and hummus and slid them onto a plate, which she put in front of Angelica.
Then she made herself a plate. No one was eating.
And while she was trying not to be offended by that fact, it still stung slightly.
Food was meant to be savored, to add pleasure to life.
Yet everyone at this table was so locked in on work that they were missing out on some of the best things right in front of them.
“A new menu?” Daph blew a raspberry. “This is all so much to take in at once.”
“I know it is,” Angelica said, her voice oddly tender compared to how she normally was. “But we do think it’ll be for the best in the long run. We think that this will set you apart from the rest of the hotels in town, and that’s exactly what you need right now.”
“It is, I agree with you there,” Daph said, growing a bit warmer. “But that still doesn’t mean I fully understand what’s going on with everything here.”
“It’s okay. We’ll take it one step at a time. But things are going to move quickly, and you’re going to have to accept that a bit and not fight me a ton. Hope will take care of the kitchen, hospitality, and room service. I’ll be handling the rest.”
It was the first time Hope had heard that. She wasn’t used to taking on hospitality within the main part of the hotel, but it couldn’t be that hard, could it? She’d watched Angelica do it how many times over now? Flicking her gaze toward Angelica, Hope nodded. “Of course.”
“Good.” Angelica focused back on Daph and Frannie. “For starters, I want each of you to go out and call an all-staff meeting with everyone who is here, and I want you to tell them about the changes that are going to be happening. We’ll be working on renovations in the lobby area immediately.”
“Okay.”
“Good. Let’s get started.” Angelica closed her iPad and glanced at the plate of food that Hope had set in front of her.
The real question would be whether or not she’d actually eat it. Daph and Frannie walked out of the office to do as they were told, which left Angelica and Hope alone, again. Hope eyed Angelica curiously.
“You do have to eat at some point,” Hope said, her voice quietly chiding, but it was said with love, not with judgment.
“You’re right.” Angelica picked up a piece of bread and popped it between her lips. “And your sweet nibblings are always so delicious.” She chuckled as she chewed and swallowed.
“Are you done filming for right now?” Logan’s voice boomed through the room.
When had he arrived?
Hope looked at him and then at Rex and shrugged slightly. Logan was pale, and his eyes weren’t leaving Angelica’s face.
“Yes, we are,” Rex said, stepping out from behind the camera. Sy was already moving it out of the tiny room to give them some extra space.
“Good. Microphones.” He pointed at Angelica and Hope and then just waited for them to comply.
The air in the room thickened instantly. Logan shooed Rex out and shut the door before leaning against the door.
“Ange, I’m going to assume anything I share with you that I can also share with Hope.” Logan looked directly at her. “About Josef.”
“Yes,” Angelica responded immediately, her shoulders squaring as if she suddenly realized the insanity of whatever was about to happen.
Logan nodded, pressing his lips together hard. “You were filming when these came in. I opened mine, and I’m assuming yours is the same.”
Logan tossed two envelopes onto the table, one unopened had Angelica’s name on it. Hope furrowed her brow, wanting desperately to reach forward and slice it open to see what was inside. Logan stayed quiet, finally coming forward to sit across the table from them.
Angelica pursed her lips as she snagged the letter and slipped her pointer finger underneath it to open it. “This is from Josef?”
“Yes,” Logan answered, a tremble in his voice. “Normally, I wouldn’t be concerned since we see things like this often, but with everything else…” He trailed off.
Angelica’s eyes were glued onto the papers in her fingers. Her manicured nails gripped the papers tightly as she read quickly. Hope’s heart thundered. What the hell was in those papers? What was happening? She was in the room where everything was happening, and she still knew absolutely nothing.
Hope clenched her jaw, just waiting. Because what else could she do? Finally, Angelica dropped the papers in front of her and looked up at Logan. “It’s because he doesn’t want to countersue me.”
Logan’s lips parted in shock.
Hope ignored it, however. She knew exactly what Angelica was talking about. She read the papers in her fingers. Lawsuit against production and crew for defamation. Everything was outlined clearly about what was going to happen and when they had to respond by. Hope trembled.
Every time they thought they were taking a step in the right direction, Josef came back and fired another ten rounds at them. She just wanted to give up. Exactly like Angelica did. She was so tired of fighting a battle that felt unnecessary and harmful.
“He won’t win a defamation case,” Angelica said, shaking her head so that her curls bobbed on her shoulders.
“What do you mean countersue?”
“I’m suing him for harassment.” Angelica swallowed hard before she dashed her tongue against her lips. “My lawyers should have filed everything late last week. We’ve been building a case for a while, and I finally had enough and told them to pull the trigger on it.”
“Ange…” Logan sighed heavily. “You should have told me.”
“There wasn’t a need. This is a personal case, not one that production is bringing against him, and you didn’t need to be involved yet.” Angelica’s shoulders tightened hard.
“He thinks we’ve defamed him?” Hope shook her head and sighed heavily, but her stomach was a mess of nerves that she couldn’t break. “Because we told the truth?”
“Yes,” Angelica answered sharply. “This isn’t the first time I’ve run into men like this, who think they can push a woman around and make them do what they want through the law because they can’t for one second imagine that they might have done something wrong.”
Hope had never heard so much disgust in Angelica’s voice before. It surprised her. Where had all of that anger been hidden for the last few weeks?
“He’s trying to ruin my life, one piece at a time,” Angelica murmured, glaring daggers at the papers in front of her. When she looked up and locked her eyes on Hope’s, all Hope could see was what she wasn’t saying.
And he’s going to succeed.
Reaching out, Hope curled her fingers around Angelica’s and held on tightly. “This defamation suit is against production, so we can just prove that everything we’ve been saying has been true all along. We have proof of what he’s done for three years.”
“Proof of some of it,” Angelica muttered, looking toward the wall.
Was she trying to hold back tears?
“I’d like to say that they’ll fight this, but I’m not sure they will. It’s always easier to settle cases like this,” Logan added.
“Which will only give him the funds and the backing to come after me personally.” When Angelica looked at Hope this time, there was no denying the fact that she was giving up already. The brief respite they’d had was gone instantly, in one fell swoop.
“We’ll get through this,” Hope said, trying to be the positive force that they both needed. “I promise you that we will.”
“I know we will,” Angelica said, her lips pulling upward slightly into a small smile before they fell again. “I don’t know about anything else.”
“This is going to take a few years to untangle at best.” Logan reached for the plate of food and started eating it.
At least someone was going to enjoy it, because after this news, Hope was damn sure that Angelica wouldn’t have an appetite for the rest of the day. Not that it’d stop Hope from trying to get her to eat something.
“Naturally,” Angelica muttered under her breath. “I should have anticipated this, I’m sorry. I thought he’d only come after me.”
“Any idea why he has it out to get you?” Logan asked around a piece of pita bread.
“I’m a woman who wouldn’t back down.” Angelica shrugged. “He thought he could control me and he found out otherwise. Beyond that, there’s no one specific thing that happened that would point to him doing this. He needed someone to be his victim, and I was his chosen one.”
Hope hummed disappointment. Why did the world have to be so cruel sometimes? She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed heavily. “So what do we do now?”
“Nothing,” Logan answered. “Production has lawyers that will handle this. They’ll tell us what they need and what they don’t want us to do going forward.”
“I’ll let my lawyers know,” Angelica said. “And we go from there. For now, let’s get work done. Because that’s all we can really do.”