Angelica stiffened, but she did walk closer to Hope.
“How long is tonight going to run? I want to be home with Eva early.” Hope wrung her hands together as she tried not to let her gaze fall down to Angelica’s chest, but fuck, the woman was as sexy now as she ever was.
“Leave when you want, Hope. No one’s going to force you to stay.” Angelica kept a straight face, somehow.
“Are we ever going to find a balance of working together again?” Hope lowered her voice to just above a whisper. “Because I really don’t want you to be my enemy.”
Angelica’s lips twitched slightly, but she barely moved beyond that. “Time is our friend.”
“Right.” Hope breathed in deeply and let it out slowly. “I thought you might like to know that these trays are safe for you. That one definitely isn’t.” Hope pointed to the one with mushroom caps on it. “Not that I think you’ll be interested in eating anything over on that one. And this one…” she tapped her finger as she glanced over the items she’d put onto the tray and debated the ingredients in each dish. “This one is safe, but this one isn’t.”
“Hope…” Angelica trailed off her name. She looked like she wanted to say something, but she stopped herself. “I’m not hungry, but thank you.”
“But you have to eat at some point tonight.”
“I really don’t,” Angelica said easily. “But feel free to leave whenever you want. I have the speeches early on, so we don’t need to stay late.”
“Oh.” Hope frowned. “Right, speeches.” She hadn’t thought of that, and she’d completely forgotten that they’d done that last year. Hope brushed her fingers through her hair and stepped away from the food. She checked her watch. “I’m just going to run to the bathroom before people start arriving.”
Angelica nodded at her and walked away. As if it really was that simple for her. As if she wasn’t affected by their breakup, or the fact that Hope’s world seemed to be unravelling faster than she could breathe. She checked her phone to see if Rex had texted, but there was nothing.
Which shouldn’t surprise her.
He’d been quiet all day. Though she’d spent most of the day at Angelica’s hotel preparing the food for tonight anyway, so she hadn’t been around to see him or catch him. She had twenty more minutes to center herself before the festivities of the night began, and she could do this. One last night of the film crew before they took a break for months.
When she returned from the bathroom, there were several people already there. And they were just the buffer that Hope needed. She chatted with as many people as she could, always keeping her eye on the door for when Rex would show up. She really wanted to see him, to celebrate all of the hard work they’d done together in the last few months.
As the room filled with more and more people, the tension in her chest grew as well. Angelica circled around the outside of the room, barely talking to anyone, but observing everything. She never was the popular one, was she? She might have the looks, but she probably scared everyone off with her personality, with the persona of the Ice Fairy. God, it was true tonight, wasn’t it?
Hope focused back on the young sound man in front of her, trying to pick up the threads of conversation that she’d completely lost track of. Luckily, she was saved when Angelica’s voice came through the speakers around the room and she called for everyone’s attention.
It was speech time.
Angelica turned the microphone over to Josef, who talked far longer than he should have. Then Logan. Then her. Hope’s stomach twisted hard. Public speaking was something she hated doing, and it’d never get easier.
She took the microphone as it was passed to her and smiled at everyone, holding the champagne glass in her hand. “Hey there.” She chuckled nervously. She looked around the room, trying to spot Rex, but she still couldn’t find him. The pit in her stomach grew even more. “I just wanted to thank you all so much not just for coming tonight, but for being there this season. We did good, hard work this season, and I’m so proud of it and proud of all of us.”
Cheers echoed around the room. Hope grinned in response.
“That’s it. I don’t have much more to say. Those of you who know me know how much I hate pomp and circumstance. So here’s to season three!” She raised her glass in the air and waited for the cheers before she chugged the rest of her drink. Stepping out of the range of the microphone, she stumbled lightly but managed to catch herself. She wasn’t drunk, just distracted.
She found her way to the edge of the wall and turned around to watch the rest of the speeches. It wasn’t until Josef took over the microphone again and turned everyone toward the slide show of photos they’d taken randomly throughout the season that she realized far too late that Angelica hadn’t actually made a speech.
Hope twisted to her side to grab another flute of champagne but stopped cold when her eyes locked on Angelica only afew feet away from her. Angelica was staring at her with wide eyes, pained eyes. Hope took the champagne and walked slowly closer, keeping her gaze on Angelica’s face while everyone else watched the slideshow.
“You didn’t get up there.”
“No,” Angelica answered, her lips pursing slightly. “No, I didn’t.”
“Why?” Hope furrowed her brow. “You did last year.”
“I wasn’t permitted to this year.” Angelica sighed heavily and sipped her own drink. “Apparently, I’m too boring.”
“Fuck Josef.” Hope rolled her eyes. “He really needs to get the stick out of his ass.”
Angelica laughed a little. “He does. Hopefully, he will soon.”
“What do you mean by that?”
