Hope tensed. She wasn’t even sure that she wanted to look in the kitchens now, even though she knew she was going to have to. She turned to the camera again, like Florence had told her to do. “There are rules that apply to every kind of food when it comes to storage and how long it can be stored and in what condition. You can freeze meat, but even that has a date it needs to be disposed of.” Turning back to Chef Rosalie, Hope asked, “Are you aware of those dates?”
“Yes, Chef.”
“And is the food beyond those dates?”
“Yes, Chef.”
So this wasn’t just accidental negligence. It was willful. Hope paused. Calling that out right now just seemed like an unnatural cruelty, especially with how forthcoming Chef Rosalie was being. Hope was prepared to take this kitchen down if she had to, but it seemed as though it’d be easier than she’d originally thought it would.
“We’re going to look in the kitchen in a minute, but I do have one more question for you.”
“What’s that?” Chef Rosalie still refused to look at Hope again. That’d change in the course of the next week, Hope was sure of it, but she didn’t like it at the moment.
“Do you know what the smell in this hotel is?” Hope hadn’t thought about asking that question until now, but she wanted an answer, and she wanted to know if the rest of the staff was aware of the situation.
Chef Rosalie pursed her lips and nodded. “It’s mold, Chef.”
“Mold.” Hope had suspected. In fact, most of the crew had. But so far, no one was willing to confirm it. But that would make sense. They were in a very wet part of the country, and if there was a leak somewhere then that could create mold. But throughout the entire hotel?
“Three years ago, the fire suppression system cracked during a cold snap and flooded the entire hotel.” Chef Rosalie wrapped her hands together tightly. “Colm paid for remediation, but then he started to get the bill and kicked them out because he didn’t have the money. So they never fully dried the hotel out afterward.”
Hope bit her lip, nodding slowly as Chef Rosalie continued to tell this story.
“Three years ago, the hotel didn’t stink. Now it’s…part of its charm. At least that’s what Colm tells us to tell the guests who complain.”
“Oh my God.” Hope lifted a hand and put it over her mouth, staring wide-eyed at Chef Rosalie. “That’s… I’m going to need to talk to Ange about that.” That would mean they’d have to rip out just about every single wall in this place just to make it better-smelling in here, and livable. “Let’s, um… let’s start by going through the kitchen.”
They spent the next hour walking the kitchen. Hope and Chef Rosalie started to get the staff working on clearing out all of the old food and throwing it in the dumpster out back. That’d take a good amount of time considering they had food packed away in the back of the freezer from two years ago, which was apparently what had been served to Hope earlier. She didn’t want to think about it.
When they were done with that, Hope created a cleaning sheet so they could get a good deep clean on the kitchen and the dining room. While she might not be able to fix the rest of the hotel, at the very least, she could control everything here.
They were just getting started on their tasks, when Hope heard a squeal from behind the camera. Furrowing her brow, she looked behind her and walked in that direction.
“Cadence, I’m shocked that Florence’s suggestions of talking to the camera and telling the rules actually felt good.”
Cadence looked up and met Hope’s gaze with a grin. Like she hadn’t even heard what Hope had said. Lyric stood there, a phone clasped in her hand and a sneaky grin on her lips too.
“Okay…” Hope trailed off the word. “Do I dare ask?”
“The first cooking video dropped last night.” Lyric squeaked again. Never had Hope imagined she’d hear that noise from this woman.
“Yeah. I know. Cadence gave me the schedule.” And she remembered it, though she hadn’t thought twice about it since Cadence had emailed her the drop schedule. “Did you watch it? Is it good?”
“First, you and Ange should tone down the flirt—at least some.” Lyric’s cheeks turned bright red, and she shifted her gaze from Hope to Cadence.
Hope bit her lip, saying nothing. It felt odd to scold the two people who actually knew about their relationship about that. And it definitely felt like Lyric was trying to protect her more than anything else.
“But, you might not want to.” Lyric leaned against Cadence’s shoulder before she handed Hope the phone.
She stared down at the video playing on the screen. It was just a small series of clips from the longer video, but holy fuck. When Hope glanced down at the views, her stomach plummeted, swung around the earth a couple times, and then came back.
“Six million.” The words barely left Hope’s lips. “W-when did this drop?”
“Last night as part of the promotion to push people to the YouTube full video.” Lyric snagged the phone back and flipped through it to show Hope again.
This time it was the full video from the network’s channel. The looks they gave each other on the video were outrageous. Hope’s stomach tightened. If anyone doubted they were in a relationship before, this would certainly turn heads. Hope tried to hold back her smile. Being happy with Angelica was something she’d never thought would happen, but it had. And she wanted to show it off, even if this was the only way she could reasonably do that right now.
“Ange is going to flip,” Cadence muttered.
