Page 29 of Culinary Chaos
“Why do you sound like you’d rather get a mammogram than spend more time with me?” Hope fired back.
Angelica felt like Hope had physically struck her. She set the pen down gently onto the table, slowly raising her gaze to meet Hope’s. What the hell was going on? What was the problem? Hope didn’t usually push like that, at least not without being pushed first. Angelica swallowed, trying to figure out what exactly to say in response.
“That! That right there!” Kyle leaned forward like an excited kid chasing down an ice cream truck on a lazy Sunday afternoon. “We need more of that.”
“More of what?” Angelica and Hope asked at the same time, their attention now turning toward Kyle.
He grinned like an idiot. “That type of argument.”
“Argument?” Angelica questioned.
“Yes!” He clapped his hands together like he’d just figured out the missing piece to the puzzle. “I couldn’t put my finger on it until now, but that’s what we need. The other day, Hope, you came in here and you laid it on Ange—someone who’s always in charge and always in control—and you ruffled her feathers.”
Angelica bristled at that. He wasn’t wrong, but it wasn’t exactly like she wanted to hear him call that out either.
“Remember?” Kyle asked.
Hope shook her head slowly. “I’m not entirely sure what you’re talking about.”
“With the game.” Kyle’s eyes widened with excitement. “You wanted to play a game of figuring out whose food was better. Angelica refused to play. And then you came up here to confront her about it. That. That right there is what we need more of.”
“You need us to argue more,” Angelica said, only a slight amount of disgust entering her tone.
“In essence. It doesn’t have to be a real argument, just something to play up for the cameras.”
Angelica’s lips parted in surprise, and she still wasn’t sure what to say. “Why?”
“Because viewers love the tension and the drama, and they need as much of it as they can tolerate. And quite frankly, you two are the only ones who are going to be here consistently throughout this show, so the drama needs to be between you.”
“I don’t know how I feel about that,” Hope said, her voice ringing through the room.
Angelica knew exactly how she felt about it, and that was a hard no. She had enough difficult conversations to deal with in her life, the last thing she wanted to do was attempt to manufacture more arguments for the sake of entertainment.
“Look, when we put together the episode in editing, I guarantee you that that part is going to make it in.”
“No,” Angelica said.
“Yes,” Kyle answered, giddy again. “It’s perfect. People will love it. They’ll latch on to the fact that you two struggle to get along just as much as any managers trying to work together in a beast of an environment like this one.”
Angelica clenched her fist before releasing it quickly. She couldn’t show him just how much this was affecting her or the fact that she really, really didn’t want him to do this.
“Rex,” Hope said.
Angelica jerked her head up sharply. Had Rex really actually not said anything yet? That was odd. But was Hope also trying to play on her relationship with him to try and get out of this? She couldn’t believe that Hope would do that either, but she heard all that in that one word.
“He’s not wrong, Hope,” Rex finally said, his voice a lot calmer and quieter than normal. Angelica didn’t miss that. He talked to Hope differently than he talked to anyone else. “This is a reality show, and we need the drama to keep it going. This isn’t a cooking show like you’re thinking. We’ve entered into a different world.”
Angelica bit back another sigh. So much for finding some help from him.
“If it’s manufactured, planned drama, then it shouldn’t matter in the long run anyway,” Josef added, his eyes locked on Angelica’s. “And it means that you can keep it clean.”
That last comment was meant for her. He knew exactly what he was saying and what he was scolding her for.
“If we can keep the drama for the cameras without creating actual drama on this side of the cameras, then I’m fine with the idea. But if it can’t be kept separate, that’s when we’re going to run into problems,” Josef added.
Angelica tightened again. She hadn’t planned on coming in here and having to run the meeting, and she hadn’t planned oncoming in here and being scolded for her behavior either. She picked up the pen again and tightened her grip on it. She wasn’t even going to dignify Josef with a response.
“Not everyone gets along in the workplace, that’s normal.” Hope jumped in, her voice soft and almost caring.
