I carried on walking to work and when I got into the office and sat down at my desk, an email came through from Hayley.

I won’t be back into the office today. Hold the fort. Let’s meet first thing tomorrow to catch up.

I let out a slow exhale. At least I wouldn’t have to see her again today. Now all I had to worry about was meeting Davis Mulberry later. My eyes fell on my Kindle and I thought about Jake’s book. I told myself I shouldn’t be worried about him. He was just another one of our authors now.

But his words echoed through my mind for the rest of the day regardless.

You can always call me, Freya. I mean that.

41

Davis Mulberry and I met after work at an outside café close to the Tube. The summery afternoon had encouraged a lot of other people to do the same and the tables were all full. Davis was there waiting for me at one, wearing a short-sleeved shirt and light-coloured trousers, a cup of coffee in front of him. I grabbed an iced lemonade, not wanting caffeine so late in the day – I was already thinking I wouldn’t sleep well after the day I’d had – and then joined him at his table.

‘Freya, thank you,’ Davis said, breaking into a relieved smile as I sat down opposite him. ‘I wasn’t sure if you would actually turn up or not.’

‘I wasn’t sure myself until I actually got here,’ I admitted. I’d kept changing my mind the past hour as to whether this was a really bad idea or not. At least he appeared to be sober. ‘What’s going on?’

‘My publishers aren’t happy with me after what happened at the conference. My agent has tried to do damage control but they’re talking about pulling my next book, which is meant to be out next month. It’s ridiculous,’ Davis said, shaking his head. ‘I didn’t even do anything that bad.’

I gave him a sceptical look. ‘You had to be escorted out by security.’

‘Okay, I know I fucked up. But what do I do now?’

After a beat, I responded, ‘I’m sorry but why are you asking me?’

Davis leaned forward. ‘Because you helped turn things around for Jake bloody Richards! He came to the conference in the doghouse with every romance reader in the world, and now everyone is saying he’ll have the biggest book of his career once it comes out. He’s the darling of the literary world again.’ Davis groaned. ‘Totally undeserved in my opinion but there we are. Life isn’t fair, is it?’

I shook my head ‘Slagging off Jake to one side, I’m still confused why you wanted to see me.’