“Will…” Angelica’s brain stopped. There was a second owner, isn’t there? She searched for a name, combing her memory banks the best that she could and coming up completely empty. “Will it just be you?”
That was the best way she could cover up that mistake.
Theo nodded at her.
“All right.” She made her way back toward the office, followed closely by Theo. She knew that she and Hope were supposed to film the opening sequence that evening when Hope returned, and they had a few scenes with Theo and some otherstaff together so that they could try and catch back up on the filming schedule that had been interrupted by Josef.
Once again.
Didn’t that man ever stop?
Angelica sat down in a chair, barely even registering that Theo was sitting at the table with her instead of in the chair behind the desk. She really needed to get herself together, to stop thinking about Josef and everything that had gone wrong in the last few months—hell, years. Josef had been tormenting her since they started filmingHotel Bombshelland she just needed to admit that already.
There she was again.
Always putting herself directly into the line of abuse with a controlling figure at the helm of tearing her down one day at a time.
How was Josef any different from her dead mother?
She still allowed the harassment to continue far longer than she should have.
She never stood up for herself.
“Ange?” Rex’s smooth and gentle tones reached her ears.
She snapped her gaze up, meeting Rex’s compassionate gaze.
“Everything good?” he asked.
If he wasn’t telling her to immediately start filming, then she must have been more out of it than she’d thought. Angelica dashed her tongue across her lips, using the extra two milliseconds to find a center. Except she couldn’t find that.
“Yes, I’m good.”
“You sure?” Rex asked again.
Angelica nodded and cleared her throat lightly. “Yes, let’s begin.”
She put her hand on the desk as if to touch her iPad and realized belatedly that it wasn’t there. She furrowed her brow in confusion, but she had nothing else to work off right now. Andno one that could help her find it. Snagging her phone, she sent a text to Lyric to ask her to find it and bring it to her.
“I’m ready,” she said again, this time meaning it.
“Okay.” Rex didn’t seem convinced, though. He did step behind the camera and call action.
“Theo, your hotel here is lovely, it’s in a stunning and beautiful location with lots of foot traffic since it’s near the downtown area. Why don’t you tell me what you think the problems here might be?” That should at least get the conversation started until Lyric could get there with her iPad.
Angelica couldn’t make eye contact with Theo. She could barely even hold her chin up as she listened to his soft monotonous voice drone on with explanation after explanation after—no, he wasn’t actually answering her question. He was telling her the history of the hotel.
Angelica snapped her gaze up briefly.
“Theo,” Angelica interrupted. “What is the current problem when it comes to the hotel and food truck?”
He stared at her, lips parted in surprise. “Money. We have none, and it’s not producing any.”
Had he said that already and she had just missed it? Angelica ignored that thought and put her hand onto the top of the table. “Where do you think you’re bleeding money?”
“We don’t have a restaurant like most hotels do, so people don’t want to stay here because we can’t provide them complimentary breakfast.”
Angelica disagreed with that statement. Her hotels didn’t have complimentary breakfasts and they were thriving. So she dismissed that thought immediately. It wasn’t because of that, though it may be a symptom of a greater problem.
