“Without Ange’s input, I’m sure.” Hope glared. “Because I can’t in a million years believe that she’d agree to this.”
Florence stuttered. “R-right. Angelica was kept out of that decision because of the conflict of interest.”
Hope snorted and shook her head. “This isn’t the way to make her believe that our relationship isn’t going to affect production of the show, but also, let’s talk about how you just asked me to lie.”
“Lie?” Florence tensed.
“You told me to tell the world that this hasn’t affected production, when you very clearly just said it has. I won’t lie.” Hope ground her molars together. “I’m ready whenever you are.”
Florence didn’t say anything else, but soon enough the room was filled with people, and Hope was fitted with an earpiece and microphone. She listened as she was cued up to be on the screen and smiled as soon as the light was red.
“Today we have Chef Hope Lawrence with us fromHotel Bombshell. They’re right in the middle of filming their fourth season, and Hope’s taken time out of her busy filming schedule to spend some time with us. Thank you, Hope, for joining us today.”
“You’re so welcome.” Hope grinned even more brightly, staring into the black hole of the camera. She hated doing interviews like this, because it always felt like she was talking into a void. “It’s a pleasure to be here.”
“We wanted to talk about thisBombshellnews, pardon the pun, that you and Angelica Shields dropped at the beginning of filming.” The voice was chirpy, young, but Hope couldn’t quite tell if it was feminine or masculine, and no one had given her a name. Or if she had been given one, she’d forgotten it already.
“Absolutely, I’m here to tell all.” She wasn’t quite sure why she said it like that, but nerves and being thrown for a loop were definitely pushing her off her game. Angelica would be able to handle this with ease. Instead, they’d stuck the worst person possible in front of the camera.
“How did your relationship start? What was the moment that you knew there was something more between you?”
Oh fuck.This wasn’t starting out easy. Hope nervously moved the pads of her fingers against her knee and grimaced as she looked at the camera. “I think you can always say that Angelica and I were close, we do work very closely together on the show, including figuring out how to navigate tense moments together.”
“So from the moment you met?”
“Um… No, not…” Hope winced. “Everything seemed to really take off last season, and while we were on break from filming, our relationship continued to grow.”
There, hopefully that would distract from the question that Hope had screwed up on.
“What’s it like to work with someone you’re in a relationship with? You’ve done that twice now with two relationships in two very prominent positions.”
Hope’s heart thudded wildly. “It’s difficult navigating the different spaces sometimes, and to pull ourselves out of the personal and into the work, but it can also be really rewarding in that sense too, and work to our advantage. I won’t lie and say it was easy and we never had a problem.”
“It sounds like there’s a story or two there.”
“Sure.” Hope pressed her lips together tightly, but she refused to elaborate. “It’s been a long walk to where we are now, and Angelica and I have worked hard to make sure that we’re as strong as we could be going into filming this season.”
Those words sounded hollow, even to her ears. Hope twisted her hands together in her lap.
“I mean… we were strong before, but we talked a lot about how our relationship would look before we started filming.” That was a lie. They had talked about talking about it, but never actually did it. She and Rex had after the divorce, but?—
“I know this is a personal question to ask, but was there a struggle for you in figuring out your sexuality? Like what was the first tip off that you were a lesbian?”
Hope froze. “I…” All she could hear was her heart pounding in her ears, the rushing of her breath like waves so loud that she couldn’t make it stop. “I’m not.”
Coming out hadn’t been part of this plan. She’d come on here to talk about her relationship with Angelica, not to explain her sexuality, not to be…this was part of it, wasn’t it? She’d never really labeled herself as queer before, as someone who wasotherordifferentand no one had really treated her like that, not until this moment. Not until…
“You’re not a lesbian?”
“I’m…” She had to pick a label, didn’t she? But what the hell was she? She loved Rex. And she loved Angelica. And she’d loved before either of them. But what the hell did that mean?
“You don’t have to answer the question if it’s too personal.” The voice sounded softer now.
Hope sucked in a breath, but it didn’t ease the tension in her chest.
“There have been several video releases of you and Angelica recently, though the source is choosing to remain anonymous?—”
Hope’s stomach lurched.
