“Yeah.”
“I don’t think Florence is going to be our problem.” Angelica rolled her shoulders. “She’ll be an adjustment, but that’s it. A few hiccups. But we’ll figure each other out.”
“You’ve had more time to get to know her than I have.”
“Then you’ll just have to trust me.” Angelica bent down for another kiss. “When will I see you again?”
Hope groaned. “In New York.”
Frowning, Angelica nodded. “Then until New York.”
“But I don’t have Eva that week.”
“Good.” Angelica’s lips curled upward. “I think we’ll both enjoy that.”
Episode 1
NIAGARA FALLS, NEW YORK - WATERFALL RESORT
Chapter
Six
“Ange, do you have a minute?”Florence’s voice rang out to Angelica.
Angelica held her breath and stopped mid-step through the lobby of the very run-down hotel. It smelled musty and dank and moldy here, though she hadn’t managed to bring that up with anyone yet.
“Sure.” Did she have time? Not really. But when her boss pulled her to the side, she said yes, especially since she’d fought so damn hard to make sure Josef wasn’t the showrunner anymore. “What can I do for you?”
“In here.” Florence led the way into a conference room where they were stashing a lot of their stuff.
She sat down, crew moving in and around them. Sy glanced in their direction, raising an eyebrow at Angelica as if he was worried she’d already pissed off the new boss. Angelica shrugged slightly and crossed her legs as she sat next to Florence and waited for whatever dressing down she was about to get.
“What can I do for you?”
“I really don’t want tension between you and Hope on the screen.”
“I think that’s going to be impossible to avoid, entirely.” Angelica resisted the urge to cross her arms, but barely. She hadn’t quite anticipated the fact that a new showrunner would be a drastic shift in how things were run.
“I need you to.”
“There are times, frequently, when Hope and I don’t agree on a solution to a problem. If you want us to get along the entire time we’re filming, then one of us is going to have to go and this will have to become a show with a single host.” Angelica pursed her lips, standing by what she’d just said. Because she was right. Even in other shows with couples or even just two friends who were hosting, there was always some kind of conflict between them. To manufacture none would be impossible.
Florence sighed heavily, looking at Angelica directly. Her light brown eyes were unnerving, but Angelica was going to hold her on this one. “I don’t want you and Hope to argue on camera. If you need to have it out with her, you do it off set and off camera.”
Angelica shook her head slowly. “I’m not sure you realize just how short a temper Hope has.”
Florence didn’t shift. Her entire face stayed the same as she gave Angelica that hard stare. “I expect this to be followed.”
“Then talk to Hope, not me.” Angelica reached for her iPad.
“I want you to focus the tension between you and the owners, every place we go. That’s where the drama is low stakes, and where it’ll make it feel as though the resolutions can happen.”
Angelica stilled, leaning back in the chair and looking Florence over. She wasn’t wrong about that, but the social media sphere seemed to thrive on the conflict between her and Hope, at least when it wasn’t over the top, which it hadn’t been lately. Angelica continued to stare back at Florence, judging her. She needed to know how they were going to work together, even though she understood that would take time.
“Every problem has a resolution. It might just not be the resolution that feels good,” Angelica said, continuing to stare at Florence. She wasn’t going to give an inch if she didn’t have to.
“I understand that, Ange. But on this show, how we’re running it this year, is to focus on the problems of the hotels, not on the problems between you and Hope.”
