‘Let’s hope it brings some people in. And I can work out the right thing to say.’

‘Just be yourself,’ I advised. ‘Be honest.’ I felt like a broken record telling him that but he seemed to be really struggling with it. I had no idea what had caused such a big issue in his personal life that it had led to him putting his career in jeopardy, but I could see he really did care and seemed to want to fix things. I hoped if he cared enough about his career then he would finally open up.

It seemed like a long time before anything happened. I began to wonder if anyone would show up despite Jake’s video. But then, I heard a noise from outside. We both turned to the door to see a group of four women come in, chatting excitedly, holding their phones. I breathed a sigh of relief.

More people followed then, the room filling up as everyone, curious to hear what he was going to say, sat down expectantly.

Jake turned to me. ‘Thank you,’ he mouthed.

My whole body lit up.

By the time the session was due to start, the room was about three-quarters full, which I knew was the best we could have hoped for giving how shaky Jake’s reputation currently was in the romance-book community.

The conference administrator came back in and announced we were now starting. I held up my phone again to film what Jake said, hoping that readers who hadn’t come in would then watch it later on.

Jake stood up, and everyone fell silent. I could see that his legs trembled slightly but to the room, Jake appeared confident as he smiled and ran a hand through his hair. I liked that only I knew how much this meant to him. And I willed the universe to make this go well as I started recording.

Jake cleared his throat. ‘Thank you all for coming today. I know most of you probably felt like this was the last session you wanted to attend.’

There was scattered nervous titters at that.

‘But I’m glad you’re here. I want to start off by saying I’m sorry. Not only for saying that anyone reading my books is stupid for believing in happy ever afters, and implying that I only write romance books to make money…’ He took a pause when there was an annoyed murmur around the room. ‘But I’m also sorry for pretending that I hadn’t said it in the first place. For blaming the journalist involved, Kelly Shepperd, and talking about taking legal action.’

Jake glanced in my direction then. He knew I had always thought that had been a bad decision. I smiled from behind my phone, and he looked away and continued. Everyone was watching him with their full attention now; he had the room in the palm of his hand.