Page 58 of Long Story Short

‘Well, well, well, what a week you’ve had,’ Craig said once we were all seated at the table. I was next to Hayley with Jake on her other side, and it was a relief to have her in between us. Craig sat opposite us with his colleagues, who he had introduced but I’d missed most of their names because I’d been trying to not think about being so close to Jake again. ‘We’ve heard amazing things from the conference. Hayley, you told me that Jake could turn around his reputation and boy, did you pull it off this week. You kept your strategy quiet, though. We had no idea what Jake was going to reveal.’

‘I didn’t—’ Jake started to say but Hayley leaned forward in her chair and interrupted him.

‘Thank you, Craig. I decided before the three of us went to New York that we couldn’t stick to the same statement we had been using about that article. I realised Jake’s readers are a sentimental bunch and would love to hear the true story from him. I knew the conference would be the perfect opportunity to come clean, and get everyone back on his side,’ Hayley said, a sweet smile on her face.

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My head swivelled around to look at Hayley in shock. Not only was she claiming that we’d all gone to the conference together with a strategy in place to save Jake’s reputation; she was taking the credit for it. She was telling Craig that it had all been her idea! I thought about her saying that I should just sit and take notes so I could learn from her. Had that been because she knew she was going to pretend the romance conference going so well was all down to her?

‘Hang on—’ Jake started to speak again.

‘Jake,’ Hayley cut in again, turning her smile on to him. ‘Why don’t you tell everyone how your readers reacted to you at your event? When you told them all what had been going on these past few months… I know we all saw the buzz on social media but there is nothing like a first-hand account.’ She waved her hand. ‘Go ahead, don’t be modest.’ She laughed a little bit. I hadn’t realised quite how phony her laugh sounded before now.

Jake hesitated and leaned back slightly to look at me behind Hayley. I couldn’t fathom his expression but he seemed to be looking at me for some kind of cue. I was still stunned at what Hayley had said but she had pointed out she was Jake’s agent, not me, and that we would discuss my career after this meeting. Did I actually have any other choice here but to sit and listen to Hayley bigging herself up? Wasn’t that what she had basically told me she would do, and it would be for the purpose of Jake getting the best deal? I knew that was in all of our best interests so I gave Jake a firm nod, hoping he would take that as encouragement to tell the story Hayley wanted him to.

Jake seem to hesitate but finally, he cleared his throat and looked across the table. He began the story of what happened in New York and as he told it, he made it sound like we had planned it all along and we hadn’t had a disastrous first couple of days at the conference. Jake was, of course, a brilliant storyteller so everyone was in the palm of his hand.

‘And Jake was the talk of the conference after that,’ Hayley said triumphantly after he had finished. ‘Wasn’t he, Freya?’ She looked across at me.

I nodded along quickly. ‘Everyone was talking about it and so many readers came up to him asking about when there might be another book out,’ I said, relieved I didn’t need to lie about that. It was just frustrating that Hayley wasn’t telling anyone that I had been the one to encourage Jake to be honest. I wouldn’t have minded her taking the credit exactly if she had at all been supportive at the time but she had wanted Jake to keep lying, and had been really unhelpful when things had gone wrong at first, basically telling me I’d failed. Then she’d turned up and almost fired me, tried to take over but when Jake had done what I suggested and it had worked, she had changed tack completely. Now we had been successful, it was like she couldn’t remember not being on board.

Or was hoping that we wouldn’t remember.

But I did.

‘And they would be thrilled to know that he has a book all ready to go,’ Hayley said after beaming at me like she was really proud.

I had looked up to her but now I wasn’t sure I could trust her. First Jake, now Hayley. My head and heart hurt.

‘When I Met You, as you all know, is Jake’s best book so far. It’s bound to be a bestseller,’ Hayley added.

Again, her words galled me. Just an hour ago in her office, she had dismissed my praise of his book.

Craig nodded eagerly. ‘As soon as you sent it to me, I knew it would be a hit. It’s a brilliant book. Didn’t it make you cry, Rachel?’ he asked his colleague.

I tried not to react but, again, I knew this was a lie. When Hayley had sent Jake’s new book over, the article furore had been in full swing, and Craig had ignored it, left it sat on his desk for two months because he wasn’t bothered about publishing it. And when he’d finally read it, he had side-stepped talk of a new deal until now. Now opinion was back on Jake’s side, Craig’s attitude had taken a 360-degree turn.

This meeting seemed so fake.

Then I looked down at my outfit in dismay. Was I now just as fake?

I tried to shake off my thoughts and focus on what Craig was saying about their plans for Jake’s books, but my mind was racing. I really wanted this to be my career but now I was questioning at what cost I was willing to make it happen.

‘We are so happy you’re still on board with us,’ Craig said then.

Jake let out a loud exhale that turned all heads in his direction. I looked at him too, wondering what was on his mind, and if his thoughts were at all similar to mine. ‘I haven’t said that I am.’

Hayley threw a sharp glare at Jake but he kept his eyes on Craig and ploughed on regardless. I couldn’t help but admire his bravery because if she ever looked at me like that, I’d want to shrink like a tortoise retreating into its shell.

‘Um… what do you mean?’ Craig asked uneasily, his confidence suddenly shaken. I was kind of pleased about that.

‘Well, you weren’t exactly supportive over these past six months,’ Jake replied. ‘I thought you didn’t want to publish this book. I know we are skirting around that fact but I think it’s important to put it out there. I made a mistake, yes, but I didn’t appreciate the way you all tried to wash your hands of me.’

There were sharp intakes of breath, murmurings and tense expressions all around the table at Jake’s words. They were completely true but everyone was shocked he had uttered them.

‘Jake, I think—’ Hayley began, but Jake cut her off.

‘I’m sorry, Hayley, but if I am going to re-sign here, I need to make sure that something like this won’t happen again. That we can work though any issues together. And as we’ve discussed, what happened at the conference has increased interest in my new book, and the backlist has gone up the charts on Amazon too, so I would need my new deal to not only reflect this but the fact that these past few months, you haven’t been at all bothered about me or my career.’

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