MAINE - HARBOUR INN
Chapter
Five
The humidity wasn’t something Angelica was used to. And as much as she trusted Ansel to do her hair, the extra time he’d had to take that morning to put the curls in and set them was trying her patience. She hadn’t seen nor talked to Hope since she’d left her office after their argument that had gone nowhere.
As much as she had appreciated Hope’s attempt to reconcile, it hadn’t been necessary. Angelica had put that behind her, and she wasn’t willing to look back just to make their days easier. It would be fine. It had to be.
Angelica stepped out of the staging area, her nose buried in her iPad, and ran firmly into a solid body. Jarring a step backward, she looked up, her cheeks red and her heart racing. Hope’s crystalline eyes stared right back at her, lips parted in surprise. Her short hair was pressed down to her scalp and stuck up in random places at the crown of her head with a pure bedhead look, and fuck, it was doing things to Angelica’s insides that she wasn’t prepared for.
“You steady?” Hope asked, her hand on Angelica’s upper arm to keep her from falling over.
“Uh… yeah?” Angelica said, her voice barely above a whisper as she breathed out the words. Concentrating was impossible. Not with Hope standing this close to her. All she could smell was lilacs. All she could feel was Hope pressed against her, chest to chest. All she could do was breathe in and breathe out and stare directly into Hope’s eyes and curse herself for her own damn inability to keep her fucking hormones under control.
“Ange?” Hope asked, blinking as she seemed to move in impossibly close.
She wasn’t going to kiss her, was she?
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Angelica took a step back. She needed that damn space between them. She needed to be able to breathe again, and that certainly wasn’t going to happen with Hope standing that close to her. “I’m fine.”
“Are you sure? You’re shaking.”
“I’m fine,” Angelica repeated, hating that she couldn’t control herself in this moment. She was usually so damn good at it. “See you for introductions.”
Angelica stepped around Hope and into the hallway. She didn’t look behind her as she walked away. She needed to get her head on straight and make sure that she could keep herself under control for whatever was coming next.
She made it to the staging area and sat down, staring at her iPad. Rex and Cadence were also sitting at the table, heads buried in something, but Angelica didn’t want to ask what. Because she wouldn’t retain whatever they said. And she wasn’t going to be able to engage if they had any questions for her.
“Hey boss.” Lyric slid into the room with a coffee in her hand. She set the cup in front of Angelica and smiled at her. “Did you want me to take some behind-the-scenes photos today?”
“Uh. Yes.” Angelica swallowed hard. She wasn’t prepared for the onslaught that would be social media now that they were back to filming. It had been a storm each and every time theyhad finished wrapping, and last season, it had picked up well before they finished. She imagined it would be the same this time around. Angelica ran her fingers through her hair and then cringed when she knew that Ansel would yell at her for that, especially after he’d spent so much time perfecting it.
Taking the coffee, Angelica sipped it. She let the heat and the bitter flavors center her. She had to keep her head on straight to make it through this season of filming. Then she could be done. If Josef stayed on, she’d be done. If they weren’t renewed, she’d be done. Because this wasn’t something that she was built for. Three years of it had taught her that. She loved managing hotels, and she loved solving problems. But doing that in front of a camera where they were all about creating drama instead, where she had to stand across from the woman she loved and the woman she couldn’t have—it would all be too much.
“Boss?” Lyric’s voice reached her ears.
“Yes?” Angelica furrowed her brow as she looked up at Lyric. Had she missed something? Was Hope already distracting her so much that she couldn’t focus on the job that she needed to get done?
“Rex is trying to get your attention.” Lyric kept her voice soft, so quiet that Rex probably couldn’t hear her speak.
“Thanks,” Angelica mumbled as she turned to focus on Rex and Cadence. Then she just waited to see what they would say and where they would go with the conversation. She hadn’t paid enough attention to even know what they were talking about.
Hope stepped into the room, and the entire feel changed. Or perhaps that was just Angelica. Because she was tense. She was tight. And she was trying to watch every single step and every single thing that she said so as to avoid another dramatic exit like in San Diego. Hope took the chair next to Angelica, sliding into place as she stared across the rectangular tables that hadbeen put together to make the conference room functional for them.
“Are we going to discuss introductions?” Hope asked.
“Yes.” Rex nodded at her, his cheeks reddening slightly. Was he having as much issue with this as Angelica was? That’d at least be something. “We want Angelica to go first this time around, see if that adds a change to it. We’ll try it several different ways, but Cadence had the suggestion of playing up what we can use in reels on social media.”
“Reels?” Angelica asked, raising an eyebrow. She vaguely remembered some talk about that, but honestly, it was hard for her to comprehend. And no matter how hard she tried to understand social media—which wasn’t that hard—it seemed impossible.
“Short videos.” Cadence nodded firmly. “If we can give them something they can easily tear apart, then I think it’ll add to the virality of the reels that we have, which will improve how the show does.”
Angelica narrowed her gaze in confusion.
“She means that it’ll help blast the show into social media and blow it up so hopefully we can increase ratings when the episodes release.” Rex’s explanation didn’t feel like mansplaining. Which was saying something.
“All right,” Angelica said, not quite sure what she was agreeing to, but she’d do whatever they wanted at this point.
