“Yeah, but not caused by us.”
“Not directly, but by circumstances that you caused. And if I had known about those circumstances I would have been able to help answer many of the questions that have come up today.” Florence eyed her directly. “I’m not here to fight you, and I’m not going to tell two grown-ass women that they can’t be in a relationship.”
Hope let out a sigh of relief. She hadn’t been expecting the amount of weight that was lifted off her shoulders just from that one comment. She had done everything in her power to hide as best as she could in plain sight, and that just wasn’t her norm. She hated it.
“I trust Angelica has taken steps to protect herself?” Florence looked up into Hope’s eyes.
Hope nodded. “She has a lawyer.”
“She should see if there’s anything else that she can do.” Florence rolled her shoulders. “We should get back. There’s a lot of filming left for today.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Also, Hope?”
“Yes?” Hope stopped midway through her step.
“What is this FloRo nickname that Cadence has come up with?”
Hope snorted and then laughed. “Good luck getting rid of it. I think it kind of suits you, anyway. You’re not nearly as icy as the Ice Fairy.”
“Oh God. Ange?”
“The one and the only.” Hope pushed her way inside the kitchen, her step much lighter than when she’d left it.
Chapter
Ten
Ignore.
That was the only way to make it through today. Ignore Josef’s mass text with the video in it until she could lock herself in her room and break something to let her frustration out. Because what else was Angelica supposed to do? She still had to film, she still had to train, and she still had to work with all those people who now thought they knew everything.
Gah, that conversation with Florence had been painful. Angelica had been so tense that her shoulders would feel it for days. When she’d opened that text up and seen the video, the only thing she’d done was go to see if it was the longer version or the shorter one.
Short.
Not that it really mattered. It was pretty damning all together.
“Ange!”
“What?” she snapped at Rex and immediately regretted it. But she wasn’t about to apologize either. She was exhausted from today. And he couldn’t honestly expect her to not be affected, could he?
“I need you to lean in a bit more, look like you’re paying attention to what Colm is answering back to you.” Rex cocked his head at her curiously, like he was trying to wheedle his way under her skin and figure out what was happening.
Angelica sighed heavily. This was the third or fourth time he’d corrected her, she wasn’t sure. And she was tired of it. With the script in front of her and Rex behind her telling her how to move and walk and lean and look, this had become the least enjoyable experience of her life. Signing on for more seasons of this had obviously been a mistake.
She should have listened to her gut and pulled out of the contract when she could.
She should have?—
“Ange.” Rex’s voice was quite calm this time, reaching her ears still as a chastisement but at least not one done in anger. “I said action.”
Fuck.
“Colm, part of renovating the hotel is to also renovate the structure.”God, who came up with this script. “We need to discuss training and staffing and putting procedures and processes in place that will help elevate your hotel to its finest.”
Colm swallowed audibly. This had been the part of the work that Angelica had been looking forward to the most, but now all she could think about was that text and Josef and everything else going on. This work was so easy and like second nature to her that she couldn’t even force herself to think about it or get lost in it.
