Hope bit her lip and watched as Rex eyed her when he left and Cadence shook her head, grinned, and then winked. What the hell did they know that she didn’t know? Or perhaps that was just Cadence being Cadence again. It’d been a while sincethey’d been in close proximity for long periods of time, and despite filming the short cooking videos with Angelica, Hope had forgotten just how intense Cadence’s personality could be.
“What did I do?” Hope asked as soon as the door to the stuffy conference room was shut. She reached for the water bottle again, chugging what was left of it.
“Why do you always assume you did something wrong?” Logan asked, looking from Hope to Angelica.
“Because most often that’s the case.” Hope crossed an ankle over her knee and sat back in the chair. “If this is about my hair being short, I think Ange is going to have fighting words about keeping it.” Hope bit her tongue to keep herself from saying anything else. That was as forward as she’d been in Logan’s presence about their relationship, and it felt so damn weird.
“This isn’t about your hair. Actually, if anything, it’s improved ratings.”
“What?” Hope furrowed her brow and stared at him directly. “Are you serious?”
“The lesbian army.” Angelica’s voice was calm, cool, and collected, but she wasn’t looking at Hope when she spoke either. She was focused like a fly to light on the iPad in front of her. Then she handed it over to Hope. “See?”
Hope took in a short breath as she watched a video that Lyric had clearly texted Angelica. It was clips from the last season, of the looks Angelica had given Hope, and with a young self-proclaimed lesbian on the screen two seconds later saying, “Yes, yes, we get it, Ange. We’re all weak in the knees for her too.”
“Oh.” Hope pressed her lips together hard when she glanced at the number of views on the video and nearly had a heart attack. Since she’d picked up another show to film she hadn’t had more than two seconds to look at social media or pay attention to it. She had people for that, and they were doing anexcellent job at keeping up with it. At least for now. But they apparently hadn’t been telling her about these things.
“It’s very gay,” Angelica said, stealing the iPad back and setting it on the table.
“So if this isn’t about my hair, what did I do wrong?” Hope crossed her arms and waited them out. She could get answers from them.
Angelica shook her head in Hope’s direction.
So she had no idea what this was about either. Logan sighed heavily and tensed up. Oh, this wasn’t going to be good. Hope’s stomach churned and twisted. Whatever was about to be said was going to be something she wasn’t going to like. And Logan was the one tasked with dealing with it.
“I’ve given you both a wide berth about your relationship, particularly because we haven’t been on set, but…I need some answers.”
Hope’s stomach dropped. She looked directly at Angelica as a cold clammy sweat rushed through her and took over her entire body. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
Logan shook his head at her. “We’re going into filming season four, and I need to know how you’re going to conduct yourselves while on set.”
“I don’t think we’re going to be any different than we were before.” Hope bit back the words, the defensiveness in her tone strong, but she couldn’t help herself. She and Angelica had lived in the bliss of not filming since the break started, and now they had to face the music. And they hadn’t even discussed it. Not once.
“It’ll be different.” Logan folded his hands in front of him, looking from Hope to Angelica—who had been unreasonably quiet. “Ange?”
Angelica shook her head slowly, her curls bouncing around her shoulders and face. But she didn’t say anything.
“I need you two to come up with a plan before we start filming.” Logan looked back at Hope, probably because she was the only one actually responding to him so far. “Because I need to know what to plan for.”
“What to plan… this isn’t a negotiation.” Hope crossed her arms then tightened her grip. “We’re not breaking up?—”
“That’s not what I’m saying.” Logan threw his hands up in the air as if to ward off what Hope was insinuating. “No, I don’t want that. What I mean is how you’re going to behave on set…what we’re going to tell people.”
“He wants a plan of action for going public.” Angelica’s voice rang clearly through the room, but she was so soft when she spoke, as if she wasn’t exactly sure what she wanted to say or to confirm it.
“W-we don’t have a plan of action for that.” Hope’s eyes widened as she looked at Logan. “This is a relationship, not a PR stunt.”
“Some people might view it as such.” Logan tapped his fingers on top of the table, like Hope should have already thought of all of these things before coming into this meeting. “And other people will view Ange as?—”
“The home wrecker.” Hope finished that sentence for him. She didn’t need anyone else to say it out loud. She knew exactly how some people would react to the information. Rachel had given her enough of a preview for that one. “She’s not, though.”
“I don’t need you to convince me.” Logan nodded at her. “I just need the two of you to talk it through and let me know what your plans are. We’ll work through the rest of PR and production around that.”
Hope shifted to look at Angelica, who still had her head buried in her iPad. What the hell was she thinking? Hope met Logan’s eyes. “Thank you.”
Logan grabbed his things and stood up, leaving them alone in the room. But Angelica still didn’t move to talk. Sighing heavily, Hope glanced at the time on her phone and let out a quiet curse. She didn’t have time for this. Not today.
“I told you that we needed to talk about this,” Hope said, a bite in each word that she hadn’t wanted to be there. But hell, she was frustrated. She had brought this up several times over the break and Angelica had continued to avoid it. And now they couldn’t. Now they had to talk, and Hope had no damn time to even think about that conversation.
