Chapter 21

I listened to a playlist of girlboss anthems on my way in to work to build up the confidence to face both Noah and his father, and picked up an iced latte on the way, drinking the whole large cup before I entered my building. It was a grey, chilly day, fitting my mood as I headed into Turn the Pages.

The office floor was quiet and I saw Noah's office door was closed.

I headed to my desk and waved to Emily and Gita. ‘Is Mr Matthews here?'

‘Yep. And Noah,' Gita said. ‘They both came in an hour ago and have been in there with the door shut. They asked for you to go in when you got here.'

‘Yikes,' I said, slipping my blazer off and hanging it over the back of my desk chair. ‘How was it yesterday?'

Emily grimaced. ‘Not great. Mr Matthews made us all feel like we're doing everything wrong and I think he's been shouting at Noah. These doors are thick but not that thick.'

‘He's kind of scary,' Gita admitted with a shiver. ‘I've always got on with bosses but not him. I think he's just looking for an excuse to replace us all with people from New York. He said if I edit like I speak then we likely have severe grammar issues in all our books.'

‘He didn't,' I said, my eyes widening.

‘He told me that my designs were childlike,' Emily said. ‘And all our covers need work if we're going to stand out in the market. Basically, I should go back to the drawing board on the next six books coming out.'

‘Oh God, what's he going to say about Bitten?' I gulped. ‘I suppose I'd better go in.'

‘Good luck,' they said in unison.

I straightened my pleated dress, the fanciest item in my wardrobe as I thought I better look as smart as possible, and pushed my hair off my shoulders then headed for the office. My nerves increased with every step. A few other people called out ‘good luck', which made me worry that they thought I needed luck. By the time I knocked on Noah's office door, any confidence I had tried to summon earlier had seeped out like air from a popped balloon.

‘Come in,' Noah called out before I could turn around and decide against this.

I entered. Noah was at his desk and his father stood by the window. Mr Matthews was tall like Noah but he had salt and pepper hair and a trimmed beard. He wore a dark suit and had his hands behind his back. He regarded me with a disdainful look as I smiled brightly. The whole vibe was immediately off. I glanced at Noah, pleased to see he had more colour than yesterday, but he looked tense.

‘This is Stevie, our new publicity executive. My father – John Matthews.'

‘Pleased to meet you, Mr Matthews.'

He merely nodded. ‘Take a seat and tell me how you're getting on with Ms Day's novel.'

I gratefully sank into the chair on the other side of Noah's desk, fearing my knees might have wobbled otherwise. Noah's father definitely had a headteacher vibe going on.

I straightened my shoulders and went through the plan for Bitten. ‘So, I've sent out all the review copies and kickstarted the social media campaigns. This week, we start the paid-for advertising and then it's publication next week when we have her launch party.'

I looked up. Noah gave me a nod and we turned to his father.

‘We need to cut the paid advertising by three quarters,' he said.

‘Sorry, what do you mean?' I asked fearfully.

‘I know you asked for extra budget,' he said, glancing at Noah. ‘But after speaking to your team here and back in New York, I agree with the consensus that this isn't the book to spend extra on. Based on the sales and profits we made for Ms Day's last book, we have already spent enough.'

‘But we have a plan to get the book on the bestseller list…' I began, looking at Noah in horror.

Mr Matthews held a hand up and my reply stuttered to a stop. ‘There is no guarantee that she can garner new readers, and I'm not prepared to risk such a high marketing budget on the off-chance she might become popular again. She's been around too long in my opinion. We'd do better to focus on debuts. I want to move the money you allocated to the new thriller that's coming out in January.'

I narrowed my eyes. ‘Because thrillers are worth more than romances?'

‘They have more earning potential.'

‘No! Romance made more for this company last year and?—'

‘Did you just say no?' Mr Matthews cut in, looking flabbergasted.

‘Hang on,' Noah said hastily. ‘We all agreed that Ms Day was worth focusing on as this book hits the current book trend perfectly and?—'

‘I disagree,' his father told him. ‘New readers won't notice it and it will alienate her core readership as it's different to her backlist. In my opinion, it should never have been given the greenlight but we weren't involved then. We are now. Cut your plans and just get the book out and done with then move on to the thriller, which has a better chance of charting on the bestseller list. Thank you, Stevie.'

‘But…' I looked desperately at Noah, who avoided my eyes. ‘This plan can succeed. This book is brilliant. I read a lot of romances and it's the best one I've read all year, even over the past two years.'

‘I'm not sure that says a lot, Stevie, does it?' Mr Matthews said coldly. ‘We have to publish some romance but it has never been, or will be, our focus. We want to prioritise the best-written books we have.'

I gaped at him, my blood boiling. Was he serious right now?

‘So, you're saying if a book has romance in it, it can't be well written? I can't believe you'd even think such a thing. You think romance is less than because it's written mainly and read mainly by women, I suppose?' I stood up. ‘I didn't realise I was working for a misogynistic company.'

‘Don't get hysterical,' Mr Matthews said coldly. ‘I didn't say anything of the sort. In this instance, I believe the thriller has a better chance of selling more than the romance.'

I couldn't believe he told me I was hysterical. Had we been transported back to 1950?

‘Noah, you can't agree with this decision?' I asked my very silent ex and current manager.

Mr Matthews's phone rang. ‘I need to take this. Noah, get the next meeting set up.'

With a dismissive look in my direction, Mr Matthews left the room to answer his phone call.

Noah stood up. ‘I know, I know. He's always been less than enthused about romances even though they make up so much of our profits. He's old school and?—'

‘No, that's not old school; that's so sexist, I can't even believe it,' I snapped. ‘And you just sat there! You can't tell me that you agree with cutting our budget? That we should shift our focus to the thriller?'

Noah sighed. ‘I don't agree entirely but I do see what he's saying. This is a risk based on Deborah's previous books. And this thriller is new. We have a good shot at getting attention for it.' He paused and gave me a reassuring smile. ‘We can still do a good job for Deborah.'

‘No. You're doing exactly what she's been complaining about. Not putting in any effort for her books. We promised her! We said we'd get the book on the bestseller list.' I walked to the door. ‘I don't care what your father thinks – that's what I'm going to do. And, Noah, I know you don't agree with him, I just don't understand why you wouldn't tell him that.'

I stormed out, furious. The real Noah – the man I'd fallen in love with – would have stood up to his father, not just sat there.

Gita and Emily looked up as I marched back to my desk.

‘I'm going to show that dinosaur what a bestselling publicity campaign looks like,' I told them as I sat down. ‘Thank God he didn't turn out to be my father-in-law.'

‘I'm loving the energy,' Emily said, clapping her hands. ‘What happened?'

‘He just dissed romance books,' I said, opening my emails, my fingertips flying on the keys. I was going to do everything I could to get free publicity for this book. I looked over my computer and saw Paul from sales trying to eavesdrop on us. ‘And don't think I don't know who went running to the boss about Bitten,' I called over.

He shrugged but I saw the smug smile on his face as he turned away. Traitor.

‘No one slags off romance books to me and gets away with it,' I declared. ‘Right, I'm going to email an SOS to my friend Liv. She works in a library and loves romance books. I need her help.'

‘I hate people hating on romance,' Gita said, rolling her eyes. ‘What help do you need from me? We have no idea if we'll still have jobs in six months' time so why not stand up for something we believe in? If we're going to get one over on Mr Matthews after how he's treated us all since he's been here then I'm all in.'

‘I know we weren't sure about Bitten,' Emily said, ‘but the fact that Mr Matthews and Paul think we can't make it a hit really makes me want to prove them wrong.'

‘Me too,' Gita agreed. I smiled at them both then saw Liv had sent a prompt email back to me.

Of course I'm in to help DD's new book! What do you need? Proud to be a romance reader! Romance readers for life!

Liv was in. And I had a potentially mad idea but an idea nonetheless.

I turned back to Gita and Emily. ‘Two questions – do you know a cheap printer? We hardly have any budget left but I'm going to use every last penny they've given me. And is there a way to email all staff without Noah, Paul or Mr Matthews seeing it?'

Gita and Emily both grinned back.

I'd never been so fired up. There was no way I was going to let Deborah Day down. Bitten was a brilliant book no matter what Mr Matthews thought, and I was going to prove it.