Daydreamer

Lucy

“Jesus, you look awful.” Madeline was not known for her tact.

“Thanks, Mads,” I said as I took the seat opposite her at the café she’d asked me to meet her in. I loved the place. There were bookshelves everywhere, but also lovely wide alcoves with huge windows – we were in one of them now so that we had the bookshelves behind us and a great view of the street to the side. Madeline poured my tea just how I liked it, and I forced a smile for her. “It’s been a rough day, actually.”

My throat closed over. Coming here was a mistake. I was still so shaken up by what just happened with Will. I should have gone straight to HR to report him. To be honest, I should have gone to the police. I rubbed my wrist which was still throbbing, and I felt tears sting my eyes again.

“Oh darling,” she said in a soft voice, stretching across the table to lay her hand over mine. “What’s happened? Has that hunky posh boy broken your heart?” Madeline knew all about Felix. She’d known about him for a while, even before I’d come to London. I’d made the mistake of telling her who the fae prince was based on once, and she’d been too curious not to over-Google the poor man.

When I moved to London and started working for Felix, Madeline had been annoyed. I did have deadlines after all. But she’d accepted that I needed to be in the real world for a little while to force me out of my shell, and agreed that it would help my writing. Even if my books were based in a world I’d created entirely in my head, they were very character-driven, and I still took inspiration from the people and situations around me. She was also hopeful that it might lead to me being able to tackle public events. But when I got together with Felix, she’d been worried.

“Men like that,” she’d warned me, “they’re a lot to handle. And you’ve liked him for such a long time, Luce. Don’t get too invested.”

But Mads didn’t know Felix. She didn’t know how he held me, how funny he was, how he made me feel beautiful, how kind he was, how thoughtful. Everyone at the office was drinking iced lattes and fanning themselves all day as Felix still refused to lower the temperature below twenty-five degrees, but all he cared about was whether I was comfortable.

“It’s nothing to do with Felix.” I took a deep breath and let it out in a shaky exhale. “That guy I work for, Will. He… well he was angry and he grabbed me.” She gasped when I showed her the red marks on my wrist.

“Oh my God, Luce,” Madeline said in horror. “Have you called the police?”

“The police?” I frowned at her. “I, er… isn’t that going a bit far?”

Madeline’s eyebrows went up. “He assaulted you, Lucy. No, it is not going too far. At least tell me you’ve been to HR and reported him there.”

I bit my lip, and she growled in frustration. “Right, straight after this you’re going back to that shithole and going directly to HR. Then you’re going to tell loverboy that his employees are abusive arseholes. Understand me?”

“Okay, okay,” I said, putting my hands up in surrender.

“I can come with you if you want,” she offered, her voice softer now.

I was tempted to say yes but I shook my head instead. I had to start standing up for myself. “Thanks, hun but I’ll manage. Look, let’s go over the plans for next month.”

She gave me a close look, patted my hand once then pulled back to get some contracts out of her bag. “Right, well, this is the paperwork for the translations. I’ve renegotiated the Italian deal. They were lowballing us – it was insulting.”

My eyes went wide at the figure on the front of the contract from the Italian publisher. “I’m not sure what your idea of low-balling is, but if this is my advance then you might want to readjust it.”

She smiled. “I told you I re-negotiated. This offer is still insulting if you ask me, but I couldn’t push them up anymore, and we need to get you into Italy asap.”

“Jesus, Mads. You’re a proper hard-arse. Where do I sign?”

After we’d gone through the contracts and I’d signed nearly everything, Madeline caught someone’s eye over my shoulder and waved, standing up from the table. I frowned in confusion and turned in my chair to follow the direction of her gaze. Harry York was striding across the coffee shop towards us.

“Mr York,” Madeline said as he approached. As they shook hands, I was still blinking up at him in shock. “Luce?” Mads prompted, and I jumped out of my chair.

“Miss Mayweather,” Harry said in a friendly tone. “It’s such an honour to meet you again. I recognised you in the meeting room at Moretti Harding, but it seemed like you weren’t that keen on me saying anything. You may not remember but⁠—”

“No, yes, of course I remember,” I spluttered out, feeling self-conscious. “I’m so sorry that I ran out of that restaurant. I was a terrible coward that day.”

“No, don’t apologise,” Harry said. “Madeline explained that you found it all a bit overwhelming. I should have started with something less formal. Believe me, I have firsthand experience of what it’s like to be shy. You should have met me as a teenager. Please don’t be embarrassed. It was very kind of you to send those signed books.”

Maddie moved to sit down then and indicated that we should do the same. Harry demurred, saying he’d go and order and could he get us anything.

“What’s he doing here?” I whispered to Maddie once he was out of earshot.

“Oh, he contacted me again a few weeks ago after he saw you in that meeting. He wants to see if you’d be open to arranging that book signing now you’ve breached the boundaries of Little Buckingham. But he was also asking about film rights again. If and when we get a deal on the table, he wants to be a private investor.”

“He does?” I felt a blush spread up my cheeks. It was still unbelievable to me that I had such die-hard fans like Harry York. My books were huge epic fantasies. They were all about world-building and complicated storylines woven together, dealing with difficult topics: death, love and loss. There were even some laughs in there. But they weren’t set in the real world. There were fairies and elves and lots of supernatural abilities. Of course, I thought my books were good, I just didn’t consider them serious enough to catch the attention of the likes of Harry York. “Wow, that’s… wow.”

“What’s wow?” Harry said as he approached our table again, carrying a tray with his americano and my tea with a muffin.

“I was just telling Lucy about your interest in investing in film, and the signing event you’d like her to do.”

Harry’s face lit up as he sat down. “Oh yeah, I’d love to be the one to reveal LP Mayweather to the world. We’d clear the auditorium for it at the LSE building and provide security for the queue.” Security? He thought my queue would need security? “And I’d love to be involved in investing in future film projects, if you decide to go down that road.”

“Mr York—” I started.

“Harry, please,” he said, and I gave him a smile and a quick nod.

“Harry. Considering how much of an abject coward I was the last time we were supposed to meet, it’s very kind of you to think I’d be able to manage a book signing.” I cleared my throat and looked down at my coffee. “I’m afraid I can be a terrible wussbag about these things. I grew up in a small village and I…” I sighed. “Like you said before, I can get a bit overwhelmed.

“Lucy,” Harry said softly and I forced myself to look up at him. “You don’t have to be embarrassed. I wasn’t lying when I told you how shy I was before – I nearly lost my chance with my wife Verity due to my wussbag tendencies. I did lose her for almost twenty years, but that’s another story. And I promise not to go overboard, it would just be for a couple of hours. The fee would be generous. Also, afterwards…” He looked down at his coffee for a moment then back up at me with a new intensity in his expression. “I run a programme at the LSE. It’s a youth project. The area around that part of London has a gang problem, and the schools are rife with bullying. My project provides a safe space for teenagers. We mentor them, provide tutoring if it’s needed, try to help them choose their next steps after school and support them through interview processes. They’re a great bunch of kids, and well…” He took a deep breath in and out before continuing. “Well, I tend to bang on about your books to the kids, and you’ve developed a bit of a following. There are some aspiring authors among them who I hoped you might agree to meet with and give them some inspiration? That’d be after the signing, though. So I completely understand if you don’t want to give up that much of your time. I don’t⁠—”

“I’ll do it,” I interrupted him, and his shoulders relaxed, his mouth breaking into a wide smile. “No fee.” His smile dropped.

“Lucy, believe me, I can afford it.” He paused for a moment. “Listen, I was surprised that you had a day job. It’s part of the reason I contacted your agent. I want to help you. Give you a bit of a financial boost and maybe a bit of extra promotion.”

“Harry,” I said through a smile of my own. “My reasons for working at Moretti Harding are complicated. I assure you I don’t need a fee for getting free publicity and then helping aspiring authors. If you insist on a fee, then work it out with Maddie. She can take her fifteen percent and I’ll ask her to donate the rest directly back into your project.”

He was smiling again at that. “Well, great. You have a deal.”

Maddie grinned at me. “I knew you’d go for it. See what a great agent I am?”

“The greatest.”

“Are you serious about investing… in a film project?” my voice had lowered to a whisper now, as if voicing my biggest dream out loud would make it disappear into smoke.

Harry’s eyebrows shot up. “Of course I am.”

I looked to the side. “You must really want to see the books on the screen.”

He frowned. “Er… yes, I’ll admit, just like most LP Mayweather fans, I’m impatient for it to be made into a film. But, Lucy, I may be a super fan, but I’m also a shark. I wouldn’t be offering to invest if I didn’t think I’d make a shit-ton of money out of it for myself.”

I grinned at him. “Really?”

“Really.” Harry was looking over at the other side of the coffee shop now and giving a thumbs up. I followed the direction of his gaze and saw his beautiful, dark-haired, very pregnant wife sitting by herself with her eyes glued to Harry and a huge grin on her face. Her eyes flicked to me, and she bit her lip. I gave her a small wave and a smile. She gave me an enthusiastic one back.

“Sorry,” Harry said. “Verity’s a huge fan as well. She insisted on coming.”

“Why’s she sitting all the way over there?”

“We didn’t want to overwhelm you. She thought it was better that I talked to you about the business stuff first, and then if you were keen, then maybe you wouldn’t mind chatting to her as well.”

“Oh my God. Get her over here.”

Verity York clambered to her feet when I waved to her to come over. She was so lovely and enthusiastic about all things LP Mayweather. Once I’d assured them both that I didn’t mind discussing the books at all, that it was fun for me, they really let themselves go. After an hour Madeline had to excuse herself for another appointment but the Yorks were still going strong.

“And the audiobooks are awesome,” Verity raved. “You’re getting me through the last stages of this endless pregnancy with stupid enforced rest.”

“It’s not stupid, Verity,” Harry growled and Verity rolled her eyes.

“Honestly, your books are keeping me sane,” she told me.

“Now, about that map which you’ve put at the end of book five in the Ransomed Kingdom series,” Harry cut in, leaning forward in his chair and using his hands to emphasise his point as he questioned me on the geography of the world I’d created. To be honest, after a while it felt like the Yorks knew more about my own fantasy world than me. When we finally parted ways, I hugged them both. Verity asked if I’d consider coming over some time, offering reassurances that they would try not to spend the whole time talking about my books.

“I’ll ask some normal people,” she told me then shook her head in sharp jerk. “Shit, not that your readers aren’t normal people. It’s just we’re well aware that our fandom is a little… extreme.”

I smiled at her. “I love your fandom. I can’t tell you how flattered I am. And I really love that I had a hand in getting you together.” They’d told me about their courting phase, when a shared love of epic fantasy books helped their romance along the way. They were such a cute couple.

So by the time I left the coffee shop I felt that, after a shitty start, the day had been salvaged. I was in such a good mood, and my confidence had been bolstered so much that I was actually looking forward to going into the office tomorrow and sorting everything out with Felix. Letting HR know about Will. Standing up for myself.

I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy.