Page 125 of Culinary Chaos
“No doubt.” Hope grinned. “Ange?”
“Yes?” Angelica turned to face her fully.
“Are we okay?”
She hated being thrown back into that chaos. They’d just left it, so why did Hope have to bring it up again?
“Because I want us to be okay.”
“Yeah, we’re okay.” Angelica’s voice softened, and she couldn’t stop herself from smiling. “It’s been an intense few months.”
“It has,” Hope responded. “Way more stressful than I anticipated.”
“I think more than anyone did.”
They shared a light chuckle as the doors to the elevator opened on the second floor. They walked together, the din of voices reaching their ears as they got closer to the salon where Conrad had set up the party. Everyone was there already, which Angelica wasn’t unused to. But typically Hope would have been there before her.
“Drinks are this way,” Hope murmured in Angelica’s ear, guiding her toward the champagne and wine. She snagged aglass of champagne and handed it over to Angelica before taking one for herself. “I had a talk with Kyle yesterday after you left.”
“Oh?” Angelica didn’t look at Hope. She didn’t want anyone to accidentally overhear what they were talking about.
“Gave him a piece of my mind about communication.”
“Ah. Well deserved, I think. I’ve talked to him several times about it, but as women, we’re just not given quite the credit we should be sometimes.”
Hope laughed. “Agreed.”
Angelica sipped her drink and surveyed the room. The chatter was good, moods were happy. The crew knew everything was coming to an end soon, and Conrad was probably damn happy that Angelica would be out of his hair soon.
“So what are we doing to promote this beast of a show?” Hope asked, raising an eyebrow at Angelica.
“You want to talk shop?” Angelica replied, her gaze flicking from Hope’s mouth to her eyes. How many times she’d done that in the past few months really shouldn’t be counted. It’d easily be in the hundreds.
“What else would we talk about?”
That kiss? Doing it again?When we’ll see each other again?
Angelica stopped those thoughts immediately. “Perhaps something we have in common.”
“Like what?” Hope had that tease in her tone again, the one that Angelica had missed from when they’d met.
“Who knows?” Angelica sipped her champagne, the dry flavor tingling her tongue. She still preferred beer, but apparently that wasn’t a popular choice at events like this—something she’d learned early on her in career.
“Hmm, let’s think…” Hope crossed her arms, casting a studying gaze over Angelica. “We’re both control freaks, we have established that.”
Angelica found herself chuckling. “I’ll give you that one.”
“But that’s not a very interesting topic to discuss, is it?”
“No.” Angelica once again turned back to focusing on the room around them. She spied the food that Hope had prepared earlier that day and was curious what exactly she would have picked for a night like tonight.
Hope must have caught that. “Are you hungry?”
“Not really, no.”
“Do you ever eat?”
“Yes.” Angelica gave her a half-offended look. “Of course I do.”
