‘No,’ he replied. ‘Definitely not. I don’t see the appeal. But the things I said about him and relationships, I was just trying to push his buttons, and put you off him. I don’t know anything about how he treats women or whether he wants a relationship or not.’

I was annoyed at myself for listening to Davis but I knew I couldn’t really blame him for things ending so abruptly between me and Jake. He said I didn’t trust him and he couldn’t trust me. That was on us, not Davis. ‘Well, you shouldn’t tell lies about people. If we ever were to work together, I would expect you to be honest with me, Davis. But I think me and Jake just don’t work in the real world.’

I wished we did. I wasn’t going to share that with Davis Mulberry, though.

I stood up, not wanting to talk about Jake any more. ‘I’ll call you tomorrow,’ I promised.

Davis stood up politely. ‘Thank you, Freya. And I know I have thought about myself too much in life but I get the feeling you are the opposite. So, if you take one piece of advice from me, it’s to think about what would work best for you right now, okay? And do that. You’re honest with other people, right? Sometimes, you have to be honest with yourself.’

It was similar to the advice Jake had given me. I wasn’t sure if either of them was right but as I left the café to head towards the Tube, I knew that today had left me feeling uneasy. I had tried to do what I thought would get me ahead in my career and I had no idea if it had worked, but it had felt inauthentic. I’d been so pissed with Jake at lying to his readers, but was I lying to myself?

* * *

When my alarm went off the following morning, I groaned out loud as I rolled over to stop it on my phone. It was 6.30 a.m. I had been up until past 2 a.m. reading Davis’s book and then it took me a while to actually fall asleep as my mind kept repeating what had happened yesterday over and over.