Page 123 of Culinary Chaos
Something she had no earthly idea about.
But she wanted to know. She was so tired of being tossed into the background and thrown shit that she was expected to catch and not be grossed out by. Raising her chin up, Hope settled her shoulders. She needed to get her head on straight before she walked back in there.
“Hope?” Kyle stepped outside, a frown on his face. “Everything all right?”
“Did you know she was coming down for a scene today?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Hope fisted her hands, tightening her jaw. She was going to take a page out of Angelica’s book, because she was so tired of this shit. “You’re the director. You’re the one who’s supposed to communicate with me. And you haven’t done a damn thing about that.”
“Hope…” His tone of voice was so patronizing.
“Oh don’t you start with me.” Hope glared at him. “I’ve given you a pass until now, but I’m sick and tired of it. You have made my job so much harder and so much worse than it had to be, and I’m over it. Get your shit together, Kyle. Be a director. Don’t be an asshole. There’s enough of those in the world.”
She pushed past him and walked back inside to the kitchen. This was her safe space. And she wouldn’t ever let anyone tell her otherwise.
Chapter
Forty
“Welcome to the team.” Angelica smiled at the Zoom call she was in as she officially made the notice of hiring for Matthias Bryan—her Leanne replacement. She’d managed to sneak in one last interview with him earlier that day, which had solidified that he was the right choice to make. Now all she had to work on was getting him trained and figuring out when he’d be starting. And she had a few weeks before that would happen.
And she could very easily figure out how to do that and the press tour at the same time.
“Thank you,” Matthias said, a huge grin on his face.
Perhaps the two of them would get along. He seemed like he could handle her as a direct boss. Then again, she could be wrong. She’d been wrong before. Thoughts of Hope swarmed her mind. She really shouldn’t have said what she did when they were talking. She’d told Hope way too much about what was being said behind the scenes.
Angelica ended the call and immediately sent Matthias an invitation to their online portal where he could fill out all of his new hire paperwork to get that ball rolling. She didn’t want to push it off or wait until her admin got around to it. They’d beenwithout a manager long enough, and she needed a replacement in for Leanne.
Leanne.
Angelica sighed heavily, brushing her fingers through her hair. What the hell was she going to do about Leanne? The answer was nothing, but that still didn’t stop the ache in her heart anytime she thought about her. It had been months, and she should have moved on already. But for the first time in ages, Angelica had thought that they were on the same page, that perhaps they could make a life together.
But Leanne hadn’t agreed, and she’d ended up leaving anyway.
Angelica closed her laptop and looked around the hotel room that she’d called home for the last couple of weeks. She’d nearly packed everything up already, and the next morning, she’d travel across town to the hotel where she actually lived. It never made much sense to have a full apartment since she traveled so much, so she’d taken one of the suites at the hotel she primarily was at. Which happened to be the same one where she’d be training Matthias.
At least Josef couldn’t accuse her of an inappropriate relationship with Matthias. He absolutely wasn’t her type. Angelica stood up and changed her outfit from the last one they’d filmed in that day to something clean and fresh. She went into the bathroom to take off the makeup Ansel had put her in that morning and to refresh it with her own style.
It’d be good to get back into the routine of life, wouldn’t it?
She left her hair alone, not wanting to deal with it, and it still looked halfway decent anyway. She still had to put the final touches on the press tour, and she had to finalize the plans for the crew wrap party, which would be happening next week at her LA hotel. She’d opted to host, wanting to make sure that all thedetails were taken care of—and hell, she had the space, so why not?
She smoothed her hands over the white shirt she had on, making sure that it wasn’t bumped up over her belt in any way. One more night with these people and then she could have a little break. Slipping into her heels, Angelica pocketed her key and stepped out of her room. The party should be starting any time now.
Hope’s door opened, and Angelica tensed. Of course. They really needed to stop meeting like this—in hallways, in elevators, anywhere that was close and confined. Angelica didn’t have the bandwidth to keep dealing with it. The break couldn’t come soon enough.
“Oh, hey,” Hope said, her voice dropping.
Angelica winced. She really had done a number on Hope during their last tiff, hadn’t she? It hadn’t been full of anger and bravado like many of the others, but she’d pushed Hope as far away from her as possible.
Angelica nodded in Hope’s direction, acknowledging that they were headed to the same place. She didn’t want to say anything that she’d regret again. They started down the hallway in silence, but it was so oppressive. This quiet attitude wasn’t like Hope—and it was entirely Angelica’s fault.
Hope reached for the button to the elevator, but Angelica put her hand out to stop her. Hope stared at her in curiosity. “Is something wrong?”
So many things were wrong.
