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‘Can’t you brief her?’

‘You know I can’t, sir. You’re the master salesperson. She needs your fire and passion.’

‘Yeah, you’re right.’ Freddy rubs the back of his neck. ‘Fine. Let’s get it over with now, then.’

Freddy takes regular ice baths and knows that sometimes you just have to jump in quickly, without thinking too much. He snatches up the phone and calls Kat.

‘I need to see you,’ he says. Then, realising how weird that sounds, he rephrases it. ‘I mean, about business. And Frankfurt. Can you do lunch today?’

Kat sounds surprisingly upbeat. ‘Sure. I’d love to.’

Freddy smiles, despite himself. ‘Aren’t you going to tell me how busy you are and how much your company needs you? And then make me persuade you?’

‘No,’ says Kat. ‘I’m learning to delegate, Freddy. The more I step back from work, the better the team do. It’s good practise for me to leave them alone. They need to learn to survive without me.’

‘Excellent. I’ll pick you up from your new office at noon.’

Freddy hangs up and asks Tim to find a good Italian takeout menu. He’ll bring Kat a proper Italian meal, not one she has to cook herself. Then he’ll book the British Library Terrace for an al fresco picnic. Kat loves the British Library. And there will be no giant pork pie, sawn to smithereens with the wrong knife.

CHAPTER49

Freddy arrives at Kat’s offices with a lot more food than he intended. He got carried away and ordered half the menu. Usually, Freddy is a confident orderer, but he found himself second-guessing every food item, aiming for perfection.

Do vegetarians like mushroom pasta? Or are they sick of it? Kat will almost definitely like lasagne because of all the cheese, but she’s veggie. Is vegetarian lasagne good enough?

Freddy doesn’t have a pass to enter Kat’s new office space, but that doesn’t stop him from convincing the security guard to let him through. A twenty-pound note covers it, along with a white lie about the security guard’s weight loss.

Unexpectedly, when he reaches the Little Voice office space he finds Kat dancing on a table, blowing a noise maker and throwing shredded book pages over her team members.

‘We are the Champions’ by Queen plays from an air speaker, and Gabriela, Alan and Duncan shake their differently sized backsides to the music, whooping and cheering.

Ordinarily, Freddy would describe Kat as totally on brand. Dark hair loose around her shoulders. A sunset-yellow dress that looks both comfortable and slick. Accessories. A touch of natural makeup. Heels. Manicured hands. If she weren’t dancing on a table, she would be spot on.

However now, in Freddy’s strange, accidentally in-love state, he hears different words. Stunning. Glowing. Magnetic. A firecracker with newly softened edges.

‘WEEEEEE are the CHAMPIONS,’ Kat sings. ‘GO TEAM, GO TEAM, GO, GO, GO –’ She notices Freddy and freezes.

‘Hello Kat,’ says Freddy. ‘What’s with the celebration?’

Kat hops down from the table, cheeks reddening. ‘We just got nominated for European Small Press of the Year.’

‘But you’ve won loads of awards,’ says Freddy. ‘What’s the big deal?’

‘This is European Small Press of theYear,’ says Kat. ‘Theaward. The award that means we’ve made it.’

‘Surely you decide if you’ve made it or not?’

‘No.’ Kat laughs. ‘The industry does.’

‘And what made the industry decide you were finally worthy of this award?’

‘It must have been the Book Haven deal,’ she decides. ‘The Small Press of the Year Award is all about improvement, and our profits have gone through the roof in the last few months.’

‘Awards are vanity, profits are sanity,’ Freddy intones. ‘But I’m happy for you. When will you know if you’ve won the award?’

‘At the Frankfurt Book Fair,’ says Kat. ‘They hand out the European Publishing Awards at the opening ceremony. It’s a long night.’ She glances at Freddy’s many carrier bags. ‘Exactly how much food do you have there?’

‘I bought a lot of food because we’re celebrating some other good news.’