“Yes, Chef?”
“How does room service work here? What are the hours? What’s the process when an order is placed?” Hope put her hand on her hip and waited for an answer.
LaRae’s face went slack. “We haven’t had room service in over a year.”
“But I saw a menu in my room.” Hope cocked her head to the side in curiosity. “I’m sure my room isn’t the only one with it in there.” She’d ask the crew later if they had them.
“Right.” LaRae drew in a slow breath. “Kayla pulled room service so there isn’t any anymore.”
“But she didn’t do the legwork to actually end the service.” Hope tensed. She didn’t need LaRae to explain that because she could already guess based on what she knew of this hotel and where the vast majority of their problems stemmed from.
“No.”
“How many calls a day do you get for room service?” Hope pursed her lips.
“Enough.”
“Right.” Hope nodded to no one but herself. They definitely had their work cut out for them here.
She snagged the plate of food and stepped out into the dining room, surprised to find Harold and Christian still there with Rex. Was Angelica ignoring them that much?
Hope bypassed them and walked out of the dining room and toward the conference area that she knew Angelica was likely holed up in, at least for now. She seemed to do that for the first full day she was at a hotel while she last-minute went through the records and interviewed some of the staff. Sure enough, Angelica was sitting at a table with her iPad and paperwork in front of her.
“I brought you some lunch,” Hope said, interrupting Angelica’s thoughts.
“Oh!” Angelica’s eyes lit up. “You didn’t need to do that.”
“I figured you needed to eat something because you probably forgot again.”
Angelica’s pink cheeks told her that she had guessed correctly. Hope put the plate down next to Angelica and then pulled out a chair. “I found out some interesting information, and I wanted to toss an idea to you before we put it on film. I didn’t want Josef to run away with it before I got a chance to talk to you.”
“Good thinking.” Angelica pulled the lid off the plate and her lips curled up at the food. “What was it?”
“Kayla got rid of room service over a year ago.”
“She what?” Angelica’s fork froze over the plate with a bite of steak on it.
“I didn’t get out of LaRae why she discontinued the service, but I don’t think she told her parents.”
“The menus are still in the rooms.”
“Yes, I know.” Hope frowned. “We can deal with that in a bit.”
“You mean when Kayla decides to show up for work?” Angelica checked the time on her phone. “She’s officially four hours late.”
Hope hummed. “Sure. I was cooking your lunch, and the conversation of allergies came up. LaRae said that Lisa has fairly severe food allergies.”
“Does she?” Angelica’s voice was tense, which told Hope she’d been right about this being a sensitive topic.
“Apparently. I haven’t talked to her. But if we’re revamping things and redoing the menu, I was wondering if we should make the restaurant an allergy-friendly one. It’d give a nice unique twist which could help with marketing.”
Angelica’s lips pursed. “And you want to make an example of me?”
“No.” Hope shook her head. “No, not at all. I’d like Lisa to be the reason, because it’d be more personal then.” Why were her hands so clammy?
“But this conversation came up because you were making me lunch.” Angelica put the fork down and pushed the plate away from her. “So tell me how I’m not involved as an example of this.”
“No one knows you have allergies, Angel.”
