Page 20 of Culinary Chaos
But this?
Fuck this.
Hope stormed out of the kitchen and made her way straight up to the conference room. She had absolutely no doubt that Angelica would be sitting on her throne and ordering people around. Hope clenched her jaw as she grabbed the handle on the door and shoved it open. Her eyes locked on Angelica’s sky-blue ones, and the Ice Fairy was shocked.
How many people dared to barge in on this woman without knocking?
Well, Hope might very well be the first one, but she wasn’t going to back down. Not now. Not when she had something to say and she knew that Angelica needed to hear it.
“I thought we were doing this together!”
“Excuse me?” Angelica’s voice cracked, her gaze flicking to somewhere Hope couldn’t see.
But she had tunnel vision. And all she could focus on was Angelica in her seat behind the large conference table and the iPad sitting in front of her. There was nothing and no one else in the room as far as Hope was concerned.
“You call me in here to plan how we’re going to work together to fix this hotel from hell and then you just throw it back in my face that it’s my job? What happened to collaboration? What happened to communication?” Hope leaned over the table, her sweaty palm planting on it and sliding unexpectedly. She managed to catch herself and right her body.
Angelica huffed, sliding to stand up to her full height. Hope matched it, inches taller even with Angelica in heels. Two could play at this game, and Hope needed Angelica to learn a lesson—she wasn’t someone who could be walked all over.
“Weareworking together, Mrs. Lawrence.” Angelica kept her hands to the side, her lips pursed as she glared daggers. “You’re in charge of the kitchens and the staff there, and I’m in charge of the management and rest of the staff. By comparison, your job is far smaller than mine. You know what you’re doing, don’t you?”
Hope’s voice caught in her throat, and she had no comeback for that. Of course she knew what she was doing. Angelica knew that, didn’t she? She wouldn’t have gotten this job if she didn’t have the skills to do it.
“So do your damn job.” Angelica clenched her fist against her side, her jaw clenching tightly. “I shouldn’t need to babysit someone who claims to be a professional chef.”
“I’m doing my job,” Hope threw back at her, but even as the words left her lips, she knew they were weak.
“Are you? Or are you up here complaining to me because I didn’t want to play your stupid little game?” Angelica shook her head slowly. “We’re not here to have fun, Mrs. Lawrence. We’re here to save jobs and livelihoods. Get that through your head or you’re never going to save Matlock Manor.”
Hope clenched her jaw tightly, the muscles aching already. She had come in here to give Angelica a piece of her mind, not to be scolded like a toddler who had broken all the China in the cabinet. She breathed heavily, staring Angelica down. The silence permeated the entire room. Hope finally looked around, finding camera after camera turned toward them, and the boom from the sound operator hanging over their heads.
Tears welled in her eyes, but she blinked them back.
Hell if she would give Angelica that satisfaction.
This wasn’t about some stupid game, and if Angelica couldn’t see that, then Hope wasn’t sure she wanted to work with her any longer.
This was about the two of them and finding a way to work together to actually do something good for these people, for Antonio. But as much as Hope tried to say those words, they wouldn’t leave her lips. They clogged up in her throat, making it hard to breathe and swallow.
She stumbled a step closer to Angelica, who stayed put, as if she had been expecting it. Hope breathed in deep, getting the full scent of Angelica’s subtle perfume. Would she have noticed it before if she weren’t standing this close? Outside of the kitchens of course, because in them, all Hope could smell was whatever was cooking.
Hope’s lips parted, and she looked down at Angelica’s mouth, finding the muscles there tight with tension and anger. How much had her own anger inflated Angelica’s? And at this point, were they both just mad to be mad?
“I’ll respect you a whole lot more if you just do your job,” Angelica said, her voice low and quiet. Was she whispering or was she just threatening it?
Hope stepped back, trembling as that anger burbled its way up into her chest again. That was an accusation. And Hope didn’t miss it. Angelica didn’t think that she was doing her job, and that meant that Angelica was tempted to step in and take over for her. What the hell was up with this woman?
Or was it because Hope was a woman? Was it because Angelica had twenty years on her and clearly had a chip on her shoulder from something that Hope had no idea about. Saying nothing, Hope turned on her toes and stalked out of the conference room, slamming the door behind her for good measure.
She was still pissed.
And she needed Angelica to be acutely aware of that fact.
Because if she wasn’t, then what had been the entire point of that?
Grinding her teeth, Hope skipped the elevator and took the steps rapidly. She descended to the basement where the kitchen was and stood in the center of the room as everyone who was still there cleaned up. That anger was so strong. It was impossible to resist.
“You can all go home,” she said loudly, making sure that every single person in the room heard her. She might regret this decision later, but her present self was going to live into it. “I’ll clean it up.”
