I shrugged. ‘He might do if you end the feud,’ I said to Davis. ‘It’s up to you. But I think it’s the only way to turn around opinions right now. I’ll be honest: at the conference, I found you arrogant and annoying. I think a lot of people do.’

‘God, Freya, you don’t need to be that honest,’ Davis said, folding his arms across his chest.

‘Actually, I think she does,’ Simon said, giving me an approving look. ‘I haven’t always been as honest with you as I should have been. We’re old friends and go back years, but as you got more successful, you did become different to the man I first met as an aspiring author. And sometimes, I have been worried you’re changing into someone that might become too difficult to work with.’

Davis looked shocked. ‘Mate, you should have said… I hold my hands up, I know I haven’t been easy to work with sometimes. Honestly, this job is so stressful and I tend to act out when I’m stressed. And drink too much. In fact, I’m wondering if I need to quit the booze altogether.’ He turned to me. ‘Freya, I hate to admit it but you’ve given me some great advice. Whether I can actually follow it all through and get people back on my side, I don’t know. But I want to try. I have to try. I believe in this book and I want to see it on the shelves. Even if that means resolving things with Jake bloody Richards.’ But he winked at me and I knew he realised it was what had to happen.

Simon smiled. ‘Well, Freya, you’ve won Davis over so how could you not win me over? I know you might be happy with Hayley Harper but you are just what I’ve been looking for here. I’m about to start the journey towards retirement and I want to bring in some new blood that can make that happen. I think we’d make a good team until then. And you certainly seem able to handle Davis.’

‘If you can handle Davis, you can handle anyone,’ I said with a laugh. Luckily, they both chuckled along with me and Davis didn’t seem to take it personally.

‘If I could persuade you to leave Hayley, you could come and work here. We could co-agent Davis and a couple of my other authors for a while, then you could start to take on your own clients and, with time, take on some of mine too. I have no doubt you have the skills to be a great agent, and I want to help make that happen. I would give you a pay rise, of course. And you could start here as soon as you wanted,’ Simon said. ‘What do you think?’

I started at him in shock. ‘Huh?’