‘What changed then?’ I asked, relieved to hear that it hadn’t all been a lie. That he had believed in love. That his books weren’t a cynical marketing ploy, but he was compelled to write them. God, the thought of a man loving love so much that he decided to write romance books… it was pretty hot.

I really needed to stop thinking impure thoughts!

‘I found out something that made me wonder if it was all just… bullshit.’

‘Oh?’ I wondered what could change your opinion about love so dramatically. ‘A bad date?’ I asked flippantly, thinking about my own romance crisis.

‘I wish,’ he said, bitterness tingeing the words. He shook his head. ‘No, it was something that I didn’t want to share with… anyone. And so when I was at that event with Davis, and he sensed I was in a bad mood, he started to wind me up, digging, pushing my buttons, getting me to tell him what was going on. Well, you’ve seen what he’s like.’

‘Yes,’ I said with a sigh. ‘So, you told him a different story to the truth?’ I asked him.

‘Exactly. I threw him off, pretending the issue was work. And not anything personal. I said that I hated writing my books, that I thought my readers were pathetic. Like you said last night, Davis always riles me up no matter how hard I try to ignore him. I used to be able to shrug off what he said to me, but that night, I let him get to me. Because I felt pathetic for believing in love and happy ever afters, for writing love stories and perpetuating the myth to the world. I felt cynical and angry and… hurt. And I took it out on my readers.’

‘That was honest,’ I said when Jake finished his long explanation. He had actually opened up to me. It felt good that he trusted me to do that. But he was still keeping a lot to himself. ‘But was that really preferable to telling him the actual truth?’ I dared to ask, wishing Jake would be completely honest with me. And the world too. Right now though, I just wanted to hear the truth myself.

‘I thought so at the time. And maybe I still do.’ Jake checked the time on his phone. ‘Fancy some fresh air? We could take the long way back to the hotel before the reader session. And I could use another coffee.’

‘Sure,’ I said, my mind whirring from what he had told me.

We left the library and emerged back into sunshine. We started walking, stopping off at a coffee shop to pick up a takeaway coffee each. I drank in the sights and sounds of the city, feeling it humming through my body, enjoying being here. Jake was quiet on the way back and our earlier conversation looped in my head like a song you can’t stop listening to.