Page 211 of Pure Recklessness

As I stood in the head of subscriptions’ office with Ellie beside me, my heart thundered against my ribcage.

In less than two minutes, the subscriptions for SatisFya would be released.

This would’ve been a big deal on its own, but the fact that my future at Sated was also riding on this made it even more significant.

I was pleased with the reaction to my speech. The team responded well and after the press release was sent out, a flurry of positive stories started circulating online about my relationship with Ellie. And all of them name-checked SatisFya, which hopefully would work in our favour.

There was a chance that we might just make it through this.

If we’d survived the showdown with Ellie’s parents, we could get through anything.

As paranoid as they were, I couldn’t deny that they were sweet. It was clear that they adored Ellie and just wanted the best for her. So I was determined to do whatever it took to prove that I was worthy of their daughter’s love.

‘One minute to go!’ Ellie shrieked, staring at the countdown on the large computer screen.

I took her hand in mine and gave it a squeeze.

Heath was right when he said I should keep the personal displays of affection to a minimum in the office, but this was a big moment for everyone.

‘Going live in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two… And we’re live!’ Kendra, who was in charge of subscriptions, said.

We all fixed our gazes to the screen, watching the dashboard as the number of subscribers accumulated in front of our eyes.

Eleven subscribers, twenty-five… seventy-nine…

‘And it’s sold out!’ she declared. ‘All one hundred premium subscriber slots have been filled in less than ten seconds! And we already have… three thousand and eighty-seven subscribers worldwide! In under a minute!’

Ellie squealed with joy and I lifted her up into my arms then spun her around.

Fuck the PDA haters.

‘We did it!’ Ellie said.

‘We did. Just like I always knew we would. Thank you, Kendra,’ I said, putting Ellie back down. ‘Thank you, everyone. And please keep me updated with the numbers.’

‘Will do. We’re already at five thousand and counting. This is a record, sir!’ Kendra beamed.

‘Fantastic! Now, if you’ll excuse us,’ I said, signalling for Ellie to follow. ‘So,’ I said once we were alone in the lift together. ‘Shall we go and celebrate?’

‘Don’t you want to hang around for the board meeting?’ Ellie asked. ‘Then we can celebrate after?’

‘Ellie, irrespective of what happens at that meeting, I already have a lot to celebrate. SatisFya is a huge success and I have the incredible woman I love beside me. And that’s what matters the most.’

EPILOGUE

ELLIE

TWO MONTHS LATER

As I looked around at all of the happy faces, pride flooded my chest.

We’d done it.

Tonight was the official SatisFya launch party and it was a massive success.

Jake had just left with Halle, after charming the audience again, and my phone was blowing up with all of the positive stories circulating online.

Blake’s speech was a huge hit with the crowd too. I’d lost count of the number of journalists and influencers who had approached him afterwards to gush not just about SatisFya, but also about how much they loved our real-life love story and Sated Publishing’s recent book releases.