Page 59 of Long Story Short

Craig went pale. ‘Jake, come on, it wasn’t like that; you have to understand that?—’

‘I do,’ Jake cut in again, taking no prisoners. I bit my lip in case I started cheering or something. I had always admired Hayley’s style but now I could see just how much of it was based on manipulating people and situations, whereas Jake was telling the cold, hard truth. I had found him intimidating but now I just admired the hell out of him. It was making him even more attractive to me but I tried hard not to think in that direction and keep my thoughts on professional ground. He was making that bloody hard, though.

‘I understand completely what has happened,’ Jake continued. ‘And as I say, that has made me need to think very carefully about bringing this book, and my next ones, to this company again. I need to be sure the new deal you offer me is right for me now and for the future. So, I look forward to receiving it from you and I’ll then think it over very carefully.’

Hayley eyed Jake for a moment and then turned to Craig. I could almost see her brain ticking over. Jake had gone rogue but she wasn’t going to let that stop her from taking back control of this situation. She gave a firm nod. ‘Exactly. I couldn’t have said it better myself, Jake. We have discussed the fact that several other publishers have been in touch in the past couple of days to ask whether Jake is still under contract with you, and I have told them that currently, that is not the case.’

Craig was now ghostly white. He leaned forward and cleared his throat. ‘Now, Hayley, Jake, you know that we definitely do not want to lose you. As you say, your backlist is doing so well, and a new book will only help that further; we could re-brand all your titles and tie them into your new release. And we can set up TV appearances and arrange a book tour, capitalise in every way we can on the publicity you got at the romance conference. And I can assure you both, we are fully committed to Jake’s career and the new deal we offer will most definitely reflect that commitment. I only ask one thing: will you wait for our offer before you talk to any other publisher?’

I saw Hayley put her hand up under the table to make sure Jake didn’t answer. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.

Hayley took her time to respond. I found myself holding my breath. Finally, she sighed. ‘You’re asking a lot, Craig, but we are very loyal to you as you know so as long as you get us the deal by end of play tomorrow, we can do that.’

‘Tomorrow? I need to…’ Craig began, eyeing his team in what seemed like something close to panic.

‘Get it sorted. Excellent.’ Hayley clapped her hands together, making everyone jump a little bit. Then she stood up. ‘I have calls to make so thank you for the meeting, Craig. Looking forward to hearing from you tomorrow. Jake, Freya, shall we?’

I scrambled to get up and grab my things as Hayley swept towards the door. Jake followed at a brisk pace and I hurried after them, hearing the team calling out goodbyes and thank yous behind me. We walked to the lifts and jumped in one heading back down to the ground floor.

In the lift, I took in a couple of breaths, unsure how to even feel after that meeting.

‘Hayley…’ Jake began.

She held up a hand. ‘You know by now to trust that whatever I do is the best thing for your career, Jake. So, trust me.’

Jake looked at me but I kept my eyes on the lift doors.

After we had reached the ground floor and walked out of the building, Hayley turned to us. ‘I’m off for a lunch meeting. See you back at the office, Freya. Jake, I’ll call you as soon as Craig gets in touch.’ She air-kissed us both then strode off, disappearing into the city and leaving me and Jake together on the pavement.

‘We need to talk,’ Jake said after a moment of us watching her go.

40

I hesitated as Jake looked at me. ‘What do we have to say to each other?’

‘For starters, what’s going on with you?’ he asked.

My eyebrows shot up. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘Freya, in that meeting, you were completely unlike yourself!’

‘And you know me so well?’ I asked him, feeling instantly defensive at his tone.

‘I know you well enough to be confused about what happened in that meeting. You let Hayley act like everything that happened in New York was down to her! You let her take all the credit for your hard work. She made it seem like not only was she there all along but it was all her strategy to begin with. When we both know she had basically washed her hands of us!’ He looked as exasperated as I felt, but it made me annoyed.

‘Well, you didn’t say anything either,’ I pointed out. ‘You went along with her too.’

‘I wanted to set them straight but you didn’t seem to want me to do that. I was confused what was going on. You were so different in there. I mean…’ Jake gestured to me. ‘You even look like Hayley suddenly. What’s going on?’

My blood started to boil at his attitude when he’d made it clear we were nothing to each other. I snapped, ‘Why do you care? I’m just Hayley’s assistant to you!’

Jake looked taken aback. ‘If you really think that…’

‘What else am I meant to think?’ I demanded. ‘Ever since the party in New York, we’ve avoided each other. We said we’d go back to how we were before. And that meeting was exactly like we were before. Hayley is your agent so she took control to negotiate the best deal for you. She’s promised to help me become an agent, and told me to follow her lead. So, I did my job, Jake!’ I could see some passers-by looking at us and I realised I’d raised my voice more than was acceptable, but Jake really was winding me up. ‘And you did what she wanted too!’

‘I made sure they knew how pissed off I was with how they’ve been treating me these past few months. I’m not keen on re-signing but Hayley thinks I’ll get the best deal with them so?—’

‘Exactly,’ I interrupted him triumphantly. ‘You did what she told you to, like I did, so why am I in the wrong?’

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