Jake shook his head. ‘Romance, as everyone in this room probably knows, has often lacked the respect given to other genres, but I’m disappointed to hear it coming from a fellow writer. We should all support one another. And I can assure you, writing any book is difficult, no matter the genre. I’d argue romance is actually one of the hardest because you mainly have two characters who you are taking on a journey to a happy ending and you need to keep the reader hooked, desperate to know if they really will make it or not. Making a book easy to read is damn hard to write.’

Both Liv and Tessa cheered this sentiment and most of the room clapped and nodded in argument. I allowed myself a smile in Jake’s direction. That was a really good answer, and the room was on his side.

Davis Mulberry leaned forward again to respond. ‘And yet when we spoke last year, you seemed to agree with me that writing romance was easy. In fact, you indicated you felt writing it was beneath your talents. You dismissed the whole genre as being predictable. And told me that readers are ridiculous for believing in happy ever afters. Didn’t you, Richards?’

You could have heard a pin drop then. The whole room went deadly silent as the two men locked eyes down the table at one another.

‘Maybe we should—’ Christine began, clearly sensing the panel was getting away from her.

Jake cut in, though. ‘I did say that but…’

There were multiple gasps as Jake finally confessed that he had slagged off romance books. Jake stopped speaking as he turned to the room, realising what he’d just let slip.

‘And yet you’ve been denying it for months,’ Davis continued, looking triumphant. I longed to wipe that smug look off his face. ‘So, there we go: your favourite romance author hates romance books,’ he added to the room.

‘Jesus, Davis,’ Taylor said to him, shaking her head.

‘I think we should…’ Christine began again but Jake stood abruptly and left the room in two long strides, avoiding my eyes the whole way.

I sank back into my chair. ‘Well, today just got worse, if that was even possible,’ I said to Liv and Tessa as the room broke into outraged conversations about what had just happened, Christine failing to quieten everyone down again. ‘How the hell is Jake going to save his career now? And what is Hayley going to say? I’ve completely failed.’

‘This is on Jake, not you,’ Liv hissed across at me.

Tessa nodded. ‘Definitely, Freya, you’re trying to help him.’

‘Well, it’s not working. I better try to find him and talk to Hayley…’

‘Good luck,’ Liv said as I got up and made my own hasty exit from the room.