But I put my phone down and logged onto my work laptop. I found the industry website and the news had been announced that he’d secured a ‘huge’ three-book deal with Turn the Pages and how ‘excited’ Jake was for the next chapter of his career. When I Met You would be published early next year. There also was a quote from Hayley Harper who the article said had secured the deal for him. I guessed though that Jake had reached out to them first himself. I remembered him asking Liv at the conference what she thought about her publishers. He had obviously listened carefully and thought they would be a good change for him. It said Hayley thought:

This will be a great move for Jake and his books, and I know his readers will be delighted with this new novel, which in my opinion is the best he’s written so far.

So, she was still full of bullshit. But I was glad Jake had done what he wanted, not what she thought he should do. I wanted to let my clients follow their hearts based on my advice, not boss them about and do what I thought was the best thing. It was their career as much as it was mine. Hayley had unwittingly taught me a lot about the kind of agent I wanted to be.

I pushed thoughts of Jake aside and got on with my work.

It was a busy day. Davis did all he promised and the early reaction on social media was overwhelmingly positive. Everyone loved the snippet from his new book and the fact that he was being so positive about romance. Jake, as he had promised, shared the posts, saying he had a copy and was ‘looking forward to reading it’. Requests came in for proofs both to me and his publisher. His editor even emailed me and Simon towards the end of the day to say the team were ‘impressed’ with the response and they’d be in touch ASAP. Davis also sent his apology to the conference organisers who graciously accepted and added his open letter to their website. Davis thanked me and Simon when we spoke to him on the phone and sounded relieved that he was starting to repair the damage to his reputation. Like Jake, once he had been honest, people seemed open to giving him a second chance.

‘This has been a brilliant first day,’ Simon said to me. ‘Thank you for everything you’re doing for Davis. I know the two of you didn’t exactly hit it off in New York. He told me he showed you the worst aspects of his character over there. I do think he is trying to turn over a new leaf. Or going back to the old Davis anyway.’