The conference hotel appeared in our eyeline then. It was almost time for Jake to face his readers. I had no idea how this was going to go.

‘Everyone knows you did say those things about romance,’ I reminded him. ‘So, if you want to save your career, you need to acknowledge it, to say something to help readers believe that you don’t look down on them for enjoying your books.’

‘I do want to save it.’

‘Just for the money?’ I asked, really hoping that wasn’t the case.

‘No. For the reasons you said you enjoyed reading them. I like making people happy, I like giving them hope, I like that reading my books might make them feel better about life and love, that they can escape it all in one of my stories…’ He trailed off as we reached the door of the hotel.

I smiled. ‘I like that you like that. You’ve been more honest with me today then you ever have; why not continue with that?’ I asked as we walked inside the hotel together.

Jake didn’t answer and I had no idea if I had convinced him.

15

Jake’s reader session was taking place in a meeting room. One of the conference administrators welcomed Jake and me into the large space, which was set up with two chairs behind a table, a poster behind with a picture of Jake and his books. The plan was for Jake to read from his last published book then meet readers.

The last time Jake had done an event like this, there had been over a hundred people who had turned up but, after the panel incident, and the fact social media and the conference were abuzz with Jake admitting that the article about him had been true all along, neither of us were sure what the turnout would be.

The admin person left us alone in the room, the only sound coming from the air conditioning as we sat behind the desk to wait for readers to come in. I could smell Jake’s spicy aftershave, and it was a little bit distracting.

‘What’s the time?’ Jake asked, thankfully shaking me out of my trance.

‘Fifteen minutes until it’s supposed to start,’ I replied after checking my phone to find no reply from Hayley yet. I had no doubt she was still furious with us both. It felt like my future in publishing hung in the balance, along with Jake’s career. But I felt powerless. Jake was unsure about whether he wanted to tell the truth about why he said what he had about romance books, and I certainly couldn’t force him to. I was annoyed but when I glanced across at Jake, his worried look told me he did really care. It was so confusing.

Jake looked at the open door. ‘I would have thought people would be coming in by now.’