Page 14 of Long Story Short

He looked a little bit stunned and I saw a flicker of something behind his eyes – regret, or guilt maybe? Then he shook his head. ‘I don’t know if I believe in love either.’

‘Then why are you here?’ I asked, exasperated. I threw my hands up in the air. ‘Why come all the way to New York to try to save your career if you don’t believe in it? If you don’t care? Why carry on writing romance? Even if you need the money, you could write something else. Crime like Davis Mulberry, for instance,’ I said, unable to help myself from bringing up his arch-enemy.

I thought about younger me curled up in bed falling in love with one of Jake’s stories and how heartbroken she would be to hear that author talking like he was right now. That girl longed for love and the woman I was now still longed for it. Jake was making me feel like I was right when I told Liv romance seemed to be dead. What if I never found it? My heart ached suddenly.

‘I don’t know, Freya. I really don’t know.’ He stood up abruptly. ‘Thank you for going through the interview. I’ll stick with what Hayley told me to say. Even if you don’t agree with it, she’s my agent and your boss, and I trust her opinion.’

I flinched at the implication my opinion was worth nothing. ‘Because a romance reader doesn’t know what they’re talking about,’ I said with a sigh. He had sneered at his readers and that article had shown us all what he really thought about us. I had clung to the hope that wasn’t true but Jake was confirming it right now. He didn’t think I was right because I loved romance, and he clearly hated it. Talk about confirming the idea you should never meet your idols. Disappointment flowed through my veins.

I stood up too. ‘Okay, Jake, let’s go to the meeting and then we’ll do this interview the way that you and Hayley see fit. I just hope it works out for you.’

I got up and turned around, walking towards the exit.

* * *

‘So, it’s been six months since your last book was published and no one has heard anything about you releasing a new book. Do you have one on the way?’

I was relieved that the hotel meeting room had the air conditioning on an extra cold setting because the interview with Jake was not going well, and I would have been sweating from the pressure otherwise.

The interviewer, a woman around my age called Eva, had been batting questions at Jake for twenty minutes, all in a tone that suggested she really didn’t like him, and she was continually veering away from the questions we had been sent in advance, but only slightly so we couldn’t complain but the phrasing was much more negative. I wasn’t sure what to do. Would Hayley have called a halt to the whole thing if she was here? Jake was steadfastly avoiding my eyes so I had no idea if he wanted me to do anything or not so I sat on the edge of my uncomfortably hard chair, across the room from them, my body torn between flight or fight.

‘I have written a new book,’ Jake replied carefully. ‘And I can’t wait to tell you all about it soon.’

‘Okay,’ Eva said doubtfully. She leaned forward and my panic dialled up a notch. ‘We’ve reached my final question. I know my listeners are keen to understand what happened earlier this year. We all know the furore that followed the article that was published by Kelly Shepperd but in case anyone missed it, here are the highlights. Shepperd said she overheard you at a party talking with other authors saying, and I quote, that “readers are stupid for believing in happy ever afters. But I’m happy to take their money anyway.” You then claimed this was a fabrication by the journalist and were taking legal action. However, nothing seems to have come of that. So, my question is: do you really expect us to believe that you didn’t actually say that?’

I stood up immediately. ‘That was not on your list of questions,’ I called over. ‘You said you were going to ask how Jake felt about the article, not questioning whether it was true or not,’ I added desperately because I knew Jake had decided not to be honest about it all, and I didn’t want him to have to tell more lies on top of lies.

‘I stand by the statement I made,’ Jake said, standing up. ‘As that was your last question, I think we can call time on this interview now, yes?’

Eva sighed. ‘Yes, fine, that’s it.’ She leaned forward to shut off her recording equipment. ‘But honestly, the whole romance community doesn’t believe that article was made up. Why would a respected journalist randomly do that? Kelly Shepperd hasn’t retracted it and your lawyers haven’t managed to prove it was a lie, right? I think youdidsay it. So, if you don’t think writing or reading romance is worthwhile, I’m wondering why people should ever read one of your books again?’

Jake stared at her furiously. I hastily walked over, hoping I could steer him out of the room before he said anything to make this interview even worse than it already was. But he responded before I got a chance to. ‘I don’t care if they do or don’t,’ Jake flung at her. Then, he marched out.

My heart sunk.

Eva watched him go then looked at me, gesturing to her equipment. ‘I hadn’t turned it off. I recorded that. And I think his readers deserve to hear that’s what Jake Richards really thinks about them.’

‘Please don’t include that!’

‘I’m sorry, but Jake brought this all on himself.’

The problem was, I couldn’t really argue with her.

10

Jake disappeared for two hours after the interview and didn’t answer my calls, so I sent him a message to warn him the last part had been recorded. Hayley emailed me then to ask how the interview had gone but I was too nervous to tell her. I hoped I’d be able to temper sending news of that disaster with a good report from the author panel at least, so I held off replying to her for now.

I walked into the room the panel was going to be held in. There was a table set up with five spaces for the authors and the chair of the panel. The rest of the room had chairs placed in rows and people were starting to fill them, a buzz of chatter humming around me. I was relieved to see Liv and Tessa in the back row, waving at me to join them.

‘I didn’t think you’d come to this,’ I said as I sat down next to Liv.

‘We wanted to support you and see how Jake went down in the room,’ Liv replied. ‘Plus, we always need writing tips ourselves,’ she added with a laugh.

I leaned in closer to them. ‘The podcast interview didn’t go very well so I’m worried…’

I trailed off as the panel host, the romance conference organiser Christine came in, followed by Davis Mulberry, two other authors I vaguely recognised, and then Jake. He strode in but I wondered if anyone else in the room could see the way his eyes roamed over the packed-out audience or the way he stumbled a little on the way to his seat, or if it was just me.

As Jake sat down, his gaze fell on me. I tried to give him a reassuring nod.

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