Page 74 of Long Story Short

I arranged to meet Liv for lunch on the day we were due to hear. I needed a distraction and Liv was having a day at home writing so came along to keep me company. Davis kept messaging me on the hour every hour asking if I’d heard about the charts yet so I felt like I deserved lunch out.

‘I’m so nervous,’ I admitted to Liv as we sat in the café’s comfy chairs with our food and drink. Soft music played in the background and the midday sun streamed in through the long, glass windows that displayed my office building opposite. ‘I feel like I’m even more nervous than Davis!’

Liv laughed. ‘That’s why you’re such a good agent. Hayley probably doesn’t even know what the word “nervous” means.’ She sighed. ‘I feel like she hasn’t had much time for me lately.’

‘Oh no, why?’

‘She’s been bringing in lots of new authors. I think she felt she had to sign new people after Jake left her…’ Liv bit her lip.

‘She did take the news badly,’ I agreed.

When Jake told her that he and I were an official couple, Hayley was not happy. She seemed to think we had been conspiring against her the whole time, and after she said some really nasty things about me, Jake decided to leave the agency. He’d found a new agent since and was much happier with her, along with his new publisher. So much change but it had all been positive. He said he had realised how different his view of his career had been to Hayley’s so everything had worked out. I did feel a bit guilty though at seeing their professional relationship end.

‘Could you talk to her about how you feel?’ I asked Liv.

‘Maybe. There is something I wanted to talk to you about first, though…’ She squirmed uncomfortably in her chair.

‘What’s wrong?’ I asked, worried.

‘I don’t know if it would be like a conflict of interest or anything, and I know Hayley would be pissed off, but I need to think about myself and what’s best for my career, and I’ve seen what you’ve done for Davis,’ Liv said, pausing to clear her throat. ‘Is there any way you would consider becoming my agent?’

I stared at my cousin in shock. Then my phone started ringing on the table. ‘It’s Simon,’ I said, unsure what to say or do.

‘Take it; he’ll have the chart!’ Liv cried excitedly.

Stunned, I picked up the phone. ‘Simon…’ I listened and broke into a huge grin. ‘I’ll be back at one! No, you tell him… Okay, we’ll call him together when I come back into the office. Great. Bye!’ I hung up and looked at Liv. ‘Number one.’

‘What?’

‘Davis is number one on the bestseller list!’ I let out a little scream, and so did she. Liv jumped up and held out her arms so I got out of my chair and collapsed into them, returning her tight hug. ‘I can’t believe it.’

‘I can!’ she said, letting out a little sob into my hair. ‘I’m so proud of you, Freya!’

I pulled back, my own eyes welling up. ‘And yes. As long as Simon says it’s okay, I’ll be your agent! We’ll make it work. I’d love to help your career in any way I can, as you’ve helped me! And we’ll work out how to tell Hayley together.’

‘Oh, thanks Freya, it’s going to be so much fun! I need to tell Aiden; he’s been encouraging me to ask you for weeks. He’s probably sick of me talking about it,’ she said as we let each other go and sat back down.

‘He’s not sick of you talking about anything,’ I assured her. I’d seen them together and they were head over heels. I looked at the sparking diamond band on her ring finger. ‘I still can’t believe you two eloped, though,’ I said for maybe the hundredth time. Soon after Jake and I got together, Liv and Aiden went away to Scotland for a few days. They shocked all their family and friends by coming back married. Liv said Aiden had proposed on holiday and they had been so happy and excited that when they realised how close they were to Gretna Green, they had just gone to look around but there had been a cancellation so on the spur of the moment, they’d decided to jump straight into it.

‘We’ll throw a huge wedding party soon,’ Liv promised, her eyes sparkling. She was even more of a hopeless romantic than me and she and Aiden had definitely got carried away in Scotland. I was so happy for them. They’d been together for a while and were a perfect match. ‘God, we have lots to celebrate, don’t we?’

‘The past few weeks have been crazy,’ I said, shaking my head in wonder. So much had happened since the day Hayley had asked me to accompany Jake to New York. I had been so close to refusing to go. Thank goodness I hadn’t done that.

After lunch, I gave Liv a huge hug and told her I’d speak to Simon about us signing her to the agency and then I went back into the office to find Simon so we could call Davis with the good news.

He answered instantly when we called him from Simon’s desk. ‘What’s happening?’ he said in lieu of ‘hello’.

‘I’m really sorry, Davis,’ Simon said dully, throwing me a wink.

I let out a melodramatic sigh. ‘It’s such a shame…’

‘How bad is it?’ Davis asked tightly.

‘Look, we all tried our best,’ Simon said. ‘We should be proud of ourselves.’

I bit my lip to stop myself from giggling.

‘I’m sitting down. Just tell me. I’m a big boy. I can handle it,’ Davis said.

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