The following week was spent frantically preparing for New York. With butterflies swirling in my stomach, I booked first-class plane tickets. I hadn’t even travelled first class on a train before. When it came to a hotel, I copied Liv and booked us into The Waldorf Astoria, which had been used as a filming location in Serendipity. Why not tick off one of my life goals? I was trying to hold on to as much positivity about the trip as possible and staying there would surely make any difficult moments with Jake worth it. I booked two deluxe rooms next to one another with a view of the city and then arranged for a car to collect us from the airport. I then took myself to the shops and spent some of my pretty meagre salary on two new dresses. New York would be warm and after a few rubbish summers in London, I was missing a plentiful summer wardrobe. I made sure I didn’t spend much though by getting them in Primark, along with a new pair of boots, a straw hat in case I left the conference centre, and a pair of heart-framed sunglasses.

Then my last day at work before we headed for New York arrived, and Hayley called me into her office first thing so we could strategise for my five days in the city.

‘Your main goal on this trip,’ Hayley said as she paced around her office while I sat with a notebook on my lap to jot down her instructions, ‘is to remind everyone that Jake Richards is the king of romance books. To make them forget that article ever came out. That readers love his books and are desperate for more. Our success metric is, of course, getting him a new book deal with his publishers,’ she said, barking at me like she was an army sergeant.

I nodded along as that seemed to be all she required.

‘Jake will be on two panels at the conference, plus he’s doing a book reading and signing, and an interview with a romance book podcast,’ Hayley continued. ‘I’m most concerned about the signing and reader session as it’s allotted just to him.’

‘You’re not sure if readers will turn up?’

Hayley sighed. ‘Exactly. Will they boycott it or will they show up so they can accuse him about what he said? Or will his diehard fans still support him? It could go a number of ways. So, you’ll need to really be ready for anything.’

I wrote down in the notebook, be ready for anything and tried not to panic about failing spectacularly, with Jake Richards sinking without a trace along with my career dreams.

‘As you know, Liv is also there and her publisher will be looking after her, but make sure to check in with her just in case.’ Hayley looked at me. ‘Any questions?’