“It’ll be fine,” Angelica repeated and then moved in to kiss her quickly. “Just let me handle the questions you don’t want to answer.”
Hope snorted. “That’ll be all of them. Interviews like this are something I hate. My kitchen is my safety.”
“I know it is.” Angelica ran her hands down the lapels on Hope’s suit and tugged slightly. “But you’ll be perfect.”
“Not perfect.” Hope wrinkled her nose. “But acceptable.”
“More than acceptable.” Angelica winked at her and then shook her head. “They should be calling us up shortly.”
“Are we holding hands when we go in?” Hope asked. “I mean… everyone knows…”
Angelica paused, hesitation floating through her gaze and across her face.
“Never mind. This is for press, not that.”
“It’s both, really. We need to continue to clean up that mess that Josef made.” Angelica held her phone between her hands and then glanced down at the screen. “I’d prefer not to, at least not this time.”
“Okay,” Hope agreed. This wasn’t something she wanted to fight about. They had enough problems to face going forward.
“I want to make sure we’re doing this the right way,” Angelica said firmly. Then she frowned as she glanced at her phone again. “Has Lyric talked to you at all about filming the second half of the season?”
“No?” Hope furrowed her brow. Angelica had become more and more concerned about Lyric in the last few weeks, but neither one of them had been able to get out of her what was going on.
“She requested to stay here in Los Angeles and not join us.” Angelica dashed her tongue across her lips, and Hope had to pry her eyes away. “Apparently, she and Cadence have had an argument, one that she deems irreconcilable.”
Hope’s upper lip curled. “What?”
“I don’t know. She wouldn’t give me any more details than that.”
“I thought they were best friends.” Hope ran her fingers through the back of her hair in confusion. “Weren’t they?”
“They were close, yes.” Angelica rolled her shoulders. “I can force her to go, but I’m not sure that’d do anyone any good.” Angelica sighed. “But finding a replacement on my end is going to be difficult. Not only for my organizational needs but for my social media needs.”
“Yeah.” Hope shook her head. “Just because you don’t get along with a co-worker doesn’t mean you can’t go to work.”
Angelica looked at her directly. “Speaking from experience?”
“Maybe,” Hope teased back, pulling Angelica toward her quickly to capture her lips. “I think it worked out for us in the end, don’t you?”
“Who said I was talking about me and you?” Angelica kissed her again and laughed. “I’ll have to think about Lyric’s request.”
“Well, if it were me, I’d tell her she’d have to finish out the season and if she wanted to skip next season, then that could be discussed. But you can’t be left in a lurch on such short notice.”
“Fair,” Angelica answered.
Three knocks at the door and then it was opened. “You ready?”
“Yes,” Hope answered. She stepped back from Angelica, putting as much space between them as she felt was appropriate and had been requested.
Angelica was introduced first, and then Hope. They walked together onto the brightly lit stage and eased into the hig-backed stools that Heidi loved to have on this show. Hope had to remind herself that she couldn’t touch Angelica.
“Thank you so much for coming! I know you two are very busy in the middle of filming your fourth season! Can you tell us anything about it? Give us any spoilers?” Heidi flashed them a brilliant smile.
If Hope hadn’t known Heidi outside of this, then she would have sworn that she never stopped smiling. But she’d seen otherwise, thankfully. And Hope could match the energy. “Oh you know, it’s the same old same old, we go in, unravel all the problems, and then tidy everything up.”
“It’s not quite that easy,” Angelica jumped in, a glint in her eye. “Though I’m not sure any hotels we’ve been at this season have rivaled some in the first season.”
“That’s good.” Heidi’s face lit up. “Some of those looked horrible.”
