Page 103 of Written By a Woman

I was smiling, warmth filling my chest.

“And I will quit now, instead.”

Wait, what?

“Because I am privileged to be in a position like mine at the age that I am. I can find work anywhere. My skillset gives me job security no matter where I go.”

What? Zaid, no.

“I will admit,” Zaid held a finger up as he chuckled to himself in his nerdy bedroom, “Part of me is willing to quit just so Jacqueline’s eye doesn’t twitch the entire time we are both working together… However,” Zaid cleared his throat, “You know I’m not happy in a managerial position like this. Hell, everyone we work with knows. So, if quitting my job makes me get out of my own rut and pursue something that brings me more fulfillment,andI get to be with you on top of that? Well, that’s a no-brainer.” Zaid shrugged, smiling at the camera.

I was so in love with Zaid it wasn’t even funny.

I was sitting up on my couch now, my phone with his video posted to my account still playing while I glanced around my apartment, getting ready to go find him, “So, let me know if this sounds good to you, or if I just publicly humiliated myself on the internet in front of your entire fanbase for no reason. No pressure either way.” His smirk made me pause my frantic pacing around my apartment in search of clean socks to smile back.

“I’ll be waiting to hear from you. But, Signe, in case it wasn’t clear,” Zaid leaned forward as if he was about to tell a secret, “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” I found myself whispering back. Zaid hesitated for a moment before shaking his head to himself once and reaching forward to end the video. The fact that he had hacked into my account to do so was of no concern to me while I closed out of the app and quickly found his contact to dial.

I meant to FaceTime him, but a traditional phone call was what came up. I ran with it.

“Signe?” Zaid’s voice sounding over the speaker of my phone sent butterflies through my veins.

“Where are you?” I finally shoved my feet into sneakers, with only one sock on one foot, before grabbing my hoodie and reaching for the door.

Zaid inhaled a breath, “Where are you?”

“My apartment, but I’m coming to you—”

“Let me come to you.” Zaid cut me off, and I froze, halfway out the door with my hand on the knob. My hoodie slung over my arm. I didn’t even close the door behind me yet.

“But—I’m walking out of the door now.”

“Well, I’m walking up your staircase now,” Zaid countered. I heard the exterior building door shut below, and I gasped as I ran to the staircase to look down two floors. As soon as Zaid stepped into view, holding his phone to his ear as he smiled up at me, I squealed.

“Fine!” I grinned as he started ascending the stairs, the same moment I glanced down at myself and noticed that I was wearing the same sweatpants and t-shirt with holes in the armpit that I put on last night.

Frick.

I raced back to my apartment, stepping out of my sneakers, and skidding to a halt before I entered the bathroom to backtrack and prop the door open with one of my shoes so Zaid could come inside.

“Signe?” Zaid asked, reminding me that he was still on the call.

“Come in! I’m just changing. Or showering. Or something,” I panicked. Glancing at myself in the bathroom mirror and cringing at the dark circles under my eyes and the unbrushed hair. The zit forming near my temple.

“Or something?” Zaid asked, his steps echoing through my open apartment door.

“I want to look cute!” I set the phone down and started yanking a hairbrush through my hair.

“Weren’t you just leaving to come find me?”

“I didn’t realize how…I looked,” I widened my eyes at myself in the mirror.Good job, Signe.Way to sell yourself to the equivalent of a sports-illustrated model.

“Signe,” Zaid’s voice was low, not quite a warning, but teasing enough to let me know my time was running out, “I’m coming in.”

“The shoe is propping the door open,” I admitted, taking my bottle of mouthwash, and swishing it around for a couple of useless seconds before spitting in the sink.

The sound of my front door creaking open made my pulse spike, adrenaline and excitement and a whole other mess of giddiness making my hands shake as I struggled to apply deodorant as quickly as humanly possible.

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