“Your menu is massive, too big for the staff here to manage, and it’s pulling you down.” Hope leaned back slightly, that scowl turning into a look of disgust. She managed to flick her gaze beyond the men shouting at her and lock her eyes on Angelica.
They had talked about finding a tension point here. Angelica just hadn’t thought that it’d happen quite like this. The tension was supposed to be between the two of them, not Hope and the owners. Rubbing her thumb against her fingers, Angelica waited this out for one more second.
“This menu was created with hours of deliberation and discernment. It’s perfect.”
“It’s not!” Hope raised her voice.
And that was Angelica’s cue. She planted her foot down in front of her just about to step in when Johnny went off.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about! We’ve spent years curating this hotel to be perfect, and it is perfect!”
“It’s not perfect,” Angelica’s voice rang through the kitchen.
Everything stopped.
The pots and pans weren’t clanking, the sink wasn’t making noise, the voices all stopped. Angelica hated when she accidentally commanded that much power. She hadn’t meant to do it this time either. She’d simply meant to step in and stop this argument from happening.
“Nothing is ever perfect.” Angelica put her hands on her hips and stared Johnny down. “And you don’t talk to Chef Lawrence like that. Ever.”
“She’s tearing apart everything we’ve built.”
“That’sher job.” Angelica pressed her lips together tightly as she stepped in between Hope and the two men. She really wasover men trying to push themselves up against a woman because they thought they were the be-all and end-all of the world. She was tired of it. “Your menu is filled with good dishes. I know, I’ve eaten some of them. But that doesn’t mean that your menu is working for this restaurant or this hotel any longer.”
Robin’s jaw dropped.
“And before you say anything—” Angelica put her hand up to stop him “—I’m not going to have an argument with you over this. As a customer sits down, you don’t want them to be so overwhelmed with choices that they can’t possibly figure out what they want.”
“That’s why our waitstaff is trained to point out the best options,” Johnny said.
“By best what you mean is most expensive.” Angelica wrinkled her nose. “I’ve seen your staff in action, and I’ve seen how you’ve trained them. They told me you told them to do that, even if they don’t agree with the sentiment or that the option you told them to push is the best on the menu.”
“They push what they feel is best,” Robin immediately came in with the defense.
Angelica rolled her eyes. She leaned forward on the counter, her hand pressing into the cold steel to keep herself upright as she glared at him. “Don’t feed me a line of bullshit that we both know reeks of lies.”
Robin’s jaw dropped. “Bull?—”
“Yes.” Angelica straightened her back again. “Your menu is too big. I trust Chef Lawrence’s opinion on that, and I trust she’ll be able to narrow it down to the best dishes, perhaps even give you a few better ones to try on for size.”
Robin scoffed. “I doubt that.”
Sighing, Angelica turned slightly to glance over her shoulder at Hope. “Do you want to play a game?”
“What is this,Child’s Play?” Hope laughed as she said it, but Angelica could feel her shift closer, the warmth of her body pressing against Angelica’s shoulder almost perfectly as they teamed up to tear down. This was exactly what last season should have been. Them working together to get the job done, and not against each other.
Angelica laughed, the sound trilling through the kitchen and easing the tension that was still there. Well, most of it. Robin and Johnny still looked like they’d eaten a cow and couldn’t quite keep it all down. Angelica shook her head slightly, staring into Hope’s brilliantly crystalline eyes. Her breath caught, and she slowed herself.
“I’m not here to play games!” Johnny shouted again, pulling Angelica right out of the intensity of the look from Hope. “I’m here to save my hotel from ruin, but that seems to be all you’re interested in bringing in.
Angelica cocked her head to the side and shrugged her shoulders. “No, Johnny, that’s not what we’re doing.” She focused back on him. “I understand that you’re upset and that you’re struggling with the fact that changes need to be made to your hotel and restaurant in order to save it. Changes aren’t easy. In fact, they’re damn hard to make, and sometimes it means letting go of good people that have been around for a long time.” She was going to plant that seed now. “Not because those people aren’t good or don’t deserve jobs, but because they’re not doing what you need them to do in order to thrive. And that’s just a fact of being a business owner.”
“I won’t put out workers who have earned their place here,” Johnny growled.
Angelica sighed slightly, her shoulders dropping. “Sometimes changes need to be made into order to maintain, and sometimes changes need to be made in order to grow and maximize. If that includes terminating some workers, then that’swhat it has to be. I’m not recommending mass terminations, Johnny.”
That was the nicest way that Angelica could manage to say that without being cruel. There were definitely a few staff who either needed to get with the program or no longer work there, but that didn’t mean all of them.
The hand against her back wasn’t firm, and it wasn’t large. Angelica resisted the urge—but barely—to look over her shoulder and check to see what Hope was doing and why she was touching her like this. It was so subtle, and with the cameras so close there was no way they’d pick up on it. Would they?
