Page 14 of Culinary Chaos
Angelica didn’t comment. She just continued to work on her computer. Hope frowned. Was she supposed to be doing something?
“The biggest issue is room service,” Angelica said, still not taking her eyes from the computer screen.
“Biggest?” Hope asked.
“Well, biggest for you.” Angelica flicked her gaze to meet Hope’s. “You do know how to fix room service, don’t you?”
“Uh, yeah.” Hope furrowed her brow. She actually had no clue. She never owned a restaurant in a hotel before, and none of her restaurants participated in delivery. She’d meant to research that portion of this job before she got there that night, but she’d been so distracted with wrapping up filming and getting everything ready to be out of the house for twelve weeks straight that she hadn’t managed to find the time for it.
So she knew exactly what she’d be doing tomorrow morning when she first woke up.
“Hmmm.” The sound reverberated around the quiet room, putting Hope on edge. Angelica didn’t look at her again, focused on the papers and the computer.
Hope really had to get her brain working again, and now, because she didn’t think Angelica was going to let her out of this impromptu meeting any time soon. “The kitchen is a money pit,” Hope said, trying to add in her two cents. “I’ll likely have to fire a few people on the line just to make sure they stop bleeding money.”
“You can probably start with the head chef.”
“Why would you say that?”
Angelica slowly turned, her gaze dropping from Hope’s eyes to her lips before she shook her head and softened. “You haven’t been here the last few days. The food? Makes my stomach roil to think about it.”
“That bad?” Hope was surprised. They claimed they were a five-star restaurant, so they should at least have some standards. Then again, she’d seen a few restaurants that were all ego and no skill. Perhaps this was one of them.
“You can judge it tomorrow.”
“Perfect.” Hope sighed. “I’ve been working on the menu already. They have way too many things on it to do well, and theyneed to lean into the seasonal a bit more. Would you like to taste everything?”
“I’m fairly certain Rex has already planned that for one of the shots.”
“Oh, has he?” Hope’s eyebrows rose high. They hadn’t talked about filming at all—at least not in terms of what scenes he wanted to shoot or not. Hope needed to find out more though, because she didn’t want to piss Rex off by doing something behind his back unintentionally.
“He hasn’t talked to you about the schedule?” Angelica paused her perusal of the paperwork and focused back on Hope.
“No. Not at all.”
Angelica sighed, pursing her lips and squaring off her shoulders. “Did you look at the call sheet?”
“Is it set?” Hope frowned. She wasn’t used to this kind of television show. She was used to the film crew coming into her home, shooting episode after episode for a few weeks and then leaving again. But this was more like an actual television show, one with timelines and schedules. This wasn’t just a solo journey anymore, and she had to remember that.
“Mostly.” Angelica flicked through a few things on her screen, pulling something up. She shifted the laptop in front of Hope and pointed to it. “No one sent it to you?”
“They might have, and I might have missed it.” Hope squinted. Her eyes were so tired that it was difficult to see. “Who wrote the schedule?”
“This shoot? I did.” Angelica immediately sent it to Hope in an email. “There, you should have it now.”
“Thank you.” Hope’s stomach rumbled from the hunger. She checked her phone, surprised that the food was already delivered. How long had they been talking? “Dinner’s here.”
It didn’t take her long to walk to the front desk and snag the pizza that she’d ordered, but her feet dragged on the wayback. She should have ordered something with caffeine in it to keep her awake while she was at it, but she hadn’t been thinking clearly. Something about being in Angelica’s presence kept that from happening.
“I forgot plates,” Hope said as she stepped back into the conference room.
“I think we’ll survive.” Angelica closed the lid on her computer and stood up, making space for the pizza box. “I think we’re going to need to work on this hotel simultaneously. But I don’t think it’ll be too difficult to whip it into reasonable shape before we leave.”
“Have you ever done this before?” Hope handed a slice of pizza to Angelica before immediately taking a bite of her own. She moaned around the grease, melted cheese, and semi-warm bread as it hit her tongue. This was exactly what she’d needed.
“What? Eaten pizza late at night?” Angelica’s laugh was lyrical, and Hope craved to hear it again.
“No.” Hope slowed herself. She needed to figure out the best way to get Angelica to smile like that again. “Come in and fixed hotels that were on the brink of bankruptcy.”
