Hayley reappeared as quickly as she had disappeared then. ‘Christine and Nora have let us have a side room off the main conference hall so although you won’t have a stand in the exhibition, you’re close and you can read from the new book and sign your backlist for readers. Come on.’ She beckoned us and marched off again.

Jake sighed. ‘I’m getting tired of her attitude.’

‘She’s your agent,’ I said, following her quickly because if there was a chance to save my job, I had to take it. I would just have to do exactly what she wanted. I didn’t wait for Jake; I assumed he was following. If I was honest, I was a bit pissed off with him. I still felt in my heart that my advice had been solid and readers would have welcomed his honesty. I understood it was a very personal reason why he had almost given up on love stories, but I wasn’t sure he could get his career back to the heights it had been still keeping his secret, despite Hayley thinking readers didn’t need him to be honest. What he had said had hurt; she didn’t understand that. I wasn’t even sure she liked romance books now despite making her business out of them.

I felt thoroughly discouraged as I walked into the meeting room Hayley had managed to secure. She barked at me to post everywhere on social media to invite readers to hear Jake read the first two chapters from When I Met You, and then get her a coffee. Then she fired instructions at Jake, who trailed in the room after me, hands in his pockets, glancing at me as she spoke. I kept my eyes on my phone, though. I couldn’t let him distract me any more; I had to focus on what Hayley asked me to do.

It was a tense fifteen minutes where neither Jake nor I spoke but just listened to Hayley, who seemed oblivious to our discomfort. She bossed us and the conference administrators around and then went out into the exhibition hall to bring readers into the room. No one could say no to Hayley so soon the room was filling up. Jake went to the front with Hayley’s Kindle, his book loaded up, ready to read from, and I stood to the side with my phone to film it so I could share it online afterwards. I really hoped this would work and get him that book deal. But I wasn’t convinced. And it felt like my own career was hanging by a thread.