Chapter 29
Chapter
Twenty-Nine
“Hey there,” Hope said as soon as Angelica entered the makeup room.
Angelica nodded at Hope and slid into the chair Ansel had saved for her.
They’d managed to get all of the introductions filmed yesterday when they’d arrived, and Angelica had stayed up late to finish the schedules for San Diego and start working on the press tour.
Hope had distracted her thoroughly in the short time they’d been back in Los Angeles for the visit.
But it had been nice.
Just the two of them.
“We should do dinner tonight,” Hope said, leaning over the arm of her chair and talking directly to Angelica.
“Dinner?” Angelica raised her eyebrows in Hope’s direction. They hadn’t gotten a meal together since season 1, not like this. And she wasn’t sure she wanted to start doing that now, not with the crew and Josef around to watch their every move.
“Yeah.” Hope grinned broadly, her eyes crinkling in the corners. “You need to eat, and I need to eat, so why not?”
They had a tight filming schedule because they’d taken the extra day to go back home. Which meant they’d likely be filming late tonight. But tomorrow they might have a little bit more wiggle room.
Ansel handed her a cup of coffee, which Angelica gladly accepted. She took a long sip before shooting Hope a glance and shook her head. “I’m not sure that’s going to work out.”
“Why not?”
“Because we’re filming.” She waited until Ansel stepped far enough away before she leaned in and whispered, “And because no one can see us, remember?”
“We’re two coworkers going out to dinner. We’ve done it before,” Hope hissed back.
But circumstances were different now, and they both knew that. And Josef always had his eye turned on her. She didn’t want to push her luck with what she was doing with Hope. Angelica shook her head and sipped her coffee again. “We can talk about this later.”
Ansel had the perfect timing and showed back up.
He started to work on Angelica’s hair and makeup while she continued to sip her coffee.
Hope had already finished. They had a meeting with Rex and Josef in thirty minutes so they could discuss what was going on that day and what drama they needed to kick up, although Angelica was fairly certain they wouldn’t need any help in that department this time around.
She listened to Ansel and Hope chatter on while he worked to get Angelica camera ready.
When she’d been given the okay, she stood up, stepped out into the hallway, and walked toward the front of the hotel.
Hope was right next to her until Eva saw her from across the room and raced in their direction.
Angelica sidestepped that and froze as her eyes landed on the front reception desk. Cold rushed through her. She immediately started toward it.
“Dad? Christian?” Her voice rose up in a question as she approached her father and brother.
“Ange!” Her father called, putting his hands out for a hug.
She walked directly into his arms and hugged him lightly, kissing his cheek. “What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I told you she’d forget,” Christian mumbled under his breath.
“What did I forget?” Angelica asked, looking directly at her dad.
“We’re here to be on your show!” Her father gave her a big grin and put his hands out to his sides. “We get to be stars like you.”
“Right.” Angelica breathed out slowly. She had, in fact, forgotten that Josef was arranging this.
She’d stayed out of it as much as she could because she hadn’t thought anyone in her family would actually show up for it.
She plastered on a smile and reached for Christian to give him a hug and a kiss as well. “Welcome to the chaos, I suppose.”
“She did forget,” Christian said to their dad before laughing. “Good to know some things never change.”
Angelica refrained from saying anything else, but that comment stung far more than she wanted it to. Stepping back, she looked toward reception and rolled her shoulders. “I have a meeting to discuss the scenes for today, but I can talk to you after that.”
Her father nodded. “Go, go. We’ll be here.”
She did always love him. She kissed his cheek again and then walked toward the conference rooms on the other side of reception where they were housing their headquarters for the week.
She clenched her jaw as she slipped inside, finding Rex, Hope, and Josef already sitting at the folding tables and waiting for her.
How was she ever going to get through this week with her family here?
She smoothed her skirt down and sat next to Hope, needing the instant comfort that Hope could provide more than the feel of distance between them.
With the plan in hand, Angelica sat down with the two owners and organized herself as Rex and Sy finished setting up to film.
She caught the sound of her father’s laugh in the hallway, followed closely by Hope’s trill of laughter.
At least someone was being entertained by him and his jokes.
Hope would find him amusing, she could see that now.
But she didn’t have time for it.
Nor did she have the desire.
Years of sitting in a room where he chose to crack a joke instead of take a stand was enough for her. And while they didn’t have a contentious relationship any longer, she certainly didn’t want to open herself up for a deeper relationship either.
“Ange, you ready?” Rex’s voice broke through her thoughts, and everyone in the room was staring at her.
How many times had he tried to get her attention?
“Yeah, sorry.” She breathed deeply and centered herself on the work that needed to get done.
At least this hotel would be better than Julian Towers in Las Vegas.
She hadn’t seen any signs that the Wessels were in any way like Julian.
In fact, from what she’d seen and read about so far, they were the complete opposite.
A middle-aged couple who were just trying to do the right thing.
“And action!” Rex called.
Damn it, she’d missed even more.
Angelica smiled at Sydney and Lisa, and then she didn’t hold back at all. “Do you think that Kayla will be joining us today?”
Lisa’s jaw dropped. Sydney’s jaw tightened, his entire face hardening.
“Because she is the manager of the hotel, right?” Angelica asked, pushing her agenda. “When’s the last time that she showed up to work on time?”
Lisa’s lip quivered. “I-I don’t know.”
Angelica hummed, flicking her gaze from Lisa to Sydney. “I think you know where the problem is, and I think you already know how to resolve it.”
Sydney crossed his arms, leaning back in the chair and glaring at her. Lisa seemed to be the only one willing to have a conversation at this point, and Angelica was going to take that and run with it while she could.
“She’s our daughter,” Lisa murmured.
“She is.” Angelica sighed heavily. “But she’s also the reason your hotel is floundering.
” She’d specifically not said failing, although that was exactly what she’d meant.
She needed them to understand how dire the situation is.
“I’ve been through your numbers, and ever since Kayla took over managing the hotel, there’s been a spiral downward.
It didn’t start right away, but it’s increased dramatically over time. ”
“We had a few issues with our previous chef and Kayla. They didn’t get along well.”
Angelica pressed her lips together hard. She was fairly certain she knew why that was, but she also didn’t want to out Kayla and her relationships if her parents didn’t know about it. At least, not if she didn’t have to.
“Regardless of her personal relationships,” Angelica started, testing the waters to see how much Kayla’s parents knew, “she’s not a good employee or manager.”
“We’re not firing her,” Sydney said, his voice booming through the room.
Angelica’s shoulders stiffened, her back going straight. Normally she would have been able to control herself a bit better, but she had no doubt that her experience in Las Vegas was still affecting her to an extent. Not that she wanted to admit that to anyone, not even Hope.
“She’s our daughter,” Lisa repeated.
This was going to be a bigger fight than Angelica was ready for tonight. “Where is she?”
Lisa shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“Based on what you do know, where do you think she is?” Angelica was going to push this, because she needed an answer.
“She’s at her apartment, probably asleep. She hasn’t answered or read any of my texts or calls this morning.” Lisa bit her lip nervously. “I knew I should have driven by to wake her up.”
“How old is Kayla?” Angelica asked, trying to prove her point. “Is she a teenager or is she an adult?”
“She’s twenty-six.”
“So she’s an adult, and if she hasn’t learned how to get up to come to work in the mornings, then that’s on her, not you. And if she hasn’t figured out that this week might be a bit more important than any other week, then that’s really on her. I assume you told her we were coming.”
“We did,” Lisa answered.
“Then where is she?” Angelica raised her eyebrows.
“If my manager didn’t show up for a shift, an important shift, without any communication or a major reason why she couldn’t be there, she’d be fired.
Or at least put on suspension. How many times in the last six months has Kayla not shown up for work? ”
She didn’t get an answer. Neither Lisa nor Sydney was willing to dole out that information, and Angelica could understand why, but she needed to know, and she needed them to be on her side in this.
“How many times?” Angelica repeated the question, and then she held the silence with a pointed stare until one of them broke.
Lisa was first.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know because you’re not paying attention or because it’s too many times for you to count it up?
” Angelica crossed her arms, once again looking between Sydney and Lisa.
“Here’s the deal. I need you two to be honest with me, otherwise nothing we do here this week is going to help you in the long term.
It’ll fix things for this week and that’s it.
But if you two don’t start taking control of your hotel and running it and being owners, then nothing is going to get better and you’re going to stay in this same situation that got you into this problem. ”
How many times had she said that this season?
Hell, how many times had she said that since they started filming?
It was like each time at each hotel she had to give this pep talk.
Then again, that had been the point of the show, wasn’t it?
Create a formula that people became addicted to so that they could keep the show running as long as possible.
Angelica licked her lips, focusing back on Sydney and Lisa. “Well?”
“We don’t know because it’s been too many,” Lisa said, raising her chin up as if she’d finally understood what Angelica was really asking.
“And how many times has she faced consequences for performance and attendance?”
“None,” Sydney said, his chin dropping and his gaze locking somewhere on the table.
That was at least a start. Angelica could work with that. Maybe there was still hope for them yet. She rolled her shoulders and leaned back in the chair, eyeing both of them again. “You need to fire her.”
“No,” Sydney said firmly, his eyes widening slightly. “She’s our daughter, and I won’t do that to family.”
“This is why I preach no one should hire family members to work for them and why family-run businesses are so difficult.” Angelica clenched her jaw tightly. “You’re telling me right now that Kayla is one of the worst employees you’ve ever had. Before her, did you have a manager who was good?”
“Yeah,” Lisa said. “And we laid Troy off when Kayla got old enough to take over. That was always the plan.”
“Plan?” Angelica gave her an incredulous look.
“You should have only planned for that if Kayla had shown some sort of aptitude to actually do the job she’s hired to do.
And from what I’ve seen, and from what I’ve read about in your records and heard about from your other employees, she doesn’t have those skills.
She’s not a manager. She’s dead weight.”
“Don’t talk about our daughter that way.” Sydney’s cheeks reddened with anger.
“You need to hear it. And you’re either going to hear it now from me, or you’re going to hear it for the rest of the week when we’re digging deeper into the mess that you two created.
This isn’t all on Kayla, please don’t hear that as what I’m saying.
You two are the owners of this hotel, and you hired her and then took your hands off the wheel, thinking that she would do right by you, but she didn’t.
She took advantage. And you two fed right into that. ”
Angelica’s voice rang through the room, and nothing but silence was reflected back at her. Did they see that?
“I’ll agree to work with her, if she shows up for a shift on time tomorrow.
But if she doesn’t, I fully expect you two to pull the plug and fire her.
You need a manager who works for you, not themselves.
” Angelica closed her iPad loudly. “You tell Kayla that when you talk to her next. Until then, I have to talk with Hope about the kitchens.”
She stood up and left the room, leaving tension in her wake.
It was exactly what Rex had told her to do when she got to the end of the conversation.
Create more drama, more tension, but not have it be between her and Hope.
And it had worked perfectly. Hopefully, Josef would see it that way.
Because Angelica didn’t want to go back to what they had before.
Not again.
She wanted to keep her personal and work lives as separate as possible.
And she wanted her work life to be as calm and easy as it could be.
There would always be drama when working with people, but it didn’t have to be manufactured, and it certainly didn’t have to be between her and Hope to make the show good.
If only Josef could see that.