Page 98 of Culinary Chaos
“And you were given it this morning?”
“As soon as it came in.”
Angelica nodded slowly at him, her brain churning. How long had it taken him to come up with this idea? More than that, who else was involved in it? She didn’t dare look at Rex or the camera crew. She didn’t want to know how deep this ran, because she was sure it went beyond just Josef.
“You’re mad, aren’t you?” Josef asked.
“Mad as hell,” Angelica mumbled. And she wasn’t lying. She just wasn’t pissed off at Hope like he thought she was. And she needed to figure out a way to let Hope in on that fact, because she couldn’t continue the torment and bullying they wanted her to participate in. Tightening her grasp around the papers, she looked directly at Rex. “You ready for this hell?”
She didn’t even give him a chance to respond as she walked out of the room. Rex deserved to wallow in the pit of his own making. She wasn’t going to save him, but she stronglysuspected that he was in on this. She wouldn’t put it past him or Kyle. They’d all know, because they’d all be waiting for Angelica to show up and throw her fit and scream at Hope.
Well, they were going to get what they wanted.
And so was she.
Angelica slammed her way into the kitchen, the few staff she’d pulled from her hotel in SeaTac all looking at her as if they knew exactly what was coming. They should. They knew who she was and what she was capable of, but they also respected the hell out of her.
“What’s this?” Angelica shouted, finding Hope immediately.
They stopped by one of the steel counters, facing off each other. Angelica threw the papers down onto the top of the counter and waited for Hope to pick them up and look at them. Hope seemed confused, and calm, which wasn’t what Rex and the others wanted. Angelica refused to look over her shoulder at them, either. She didn’t need confirmation that this wasn’t what they wanted. What she needed was for Hope to start firing back at her.
“It’s an inspection report.” Hope flipped through it quickly. “What the…”
“You failed it!” Angelica raised her voice again, noting those around them flinching already. “Are you going to tell me that you, world-renowned and celebrity chef with her own damn show, doesn’t know how to pass a simple state inspection. Don’t you own restaurants? Maybe I should send inspectors to all of those? Hmm?”
Fuck, Angelica wasn’t holding back. She was going to keep up the anger in her voice, the tension in her body language, the glare on her face for as long as she had to.
“I don’t understand…” Hope trailed off, flipping through the pages again.
She seemed so confused, and Angelica’s heart broke over that. She hadn’t been told this was happening, and Angelica had suspected as much. They weren’t actors. But they were real people, and Josef needed to get that through his damn head. Angelica ripped the papers from Hope’s hand and flipped to the last page.
She pressed the document onto the counter, her pointer finger on the date next to the signature from the inspector. The date that was correct. Then she leaned onto the counter, making sure that her arm blocked the cameras so they couldn’t see what she was pointing at.
“How could you screw up so bad?” Angelica doubled down, tapping her finger against the paper. “Look, this is the worst of it. Cross-contaminated and rotten food. We agreed to get rid of that.” She tapped her finger again.
Hope’s wide eyes looked from Angelica’s face down to her finger.
Another tap, tap, tap.
“Oh,” Hope said, the word enough to let Angelica know that she understood. “I…”
“You what?” Angelica snatched the papers up, opening them again. She started listing off offenses one after the other. Then she pointed at her staff and asked them. “Do you know how to properly store shellfish?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And you!” Angelica pointed at another employee. “Do you know how long until it goes out of date?”
“Yes, Ms. Shields.”
“Are you just incompetent?” Angelica turned on Hope again, throwing the papers back onto the table and shaking her head. “Or is this job too big for you?”
“You’re over the line,” Hope fired back, a light in her eyes that Angelica was hoping to see. Hope stared at her intently.
“Am I? Looking at this, you deserve to be taken down quite a few notches.” Angelica once again pointed at the paperwork. “Ten days to fix it all. I hope you have the manpower left to do that.”
“Oh, I’ll get it done.” Hope leaned over the counter, her palms flat against the metal. She was so close to Angelica, inches away, nearly nose-to-nose.
Angelica’s heart raced. She couldn’t make herself look away. She was stuck there, staring into the eyes of the only person who might actually be on her side in this entire show. And everyone else was pitting them against each other. Angelica parted her lips, ready to throw another accusation in Hope’s direction when she stopped. She dashed her tongue across her lips, watching Hope’s gaze drop to her mouth and follow the motion.
