Page 11 of Written By a Woman

All of this to say, I also used these mental gymnastics I created for myself to justify writing the male lead in my romance novel. The male lead that thousands of readers were already obsessed with.

My phone buzzed, and I opened my account to see that I had passed ten thousand followers.

Whoa!

I bit my lip and made a little happy shimmy dance at my desk, only checking my surroundings afterward to make sure nobody saw me. But tenthousandfollowers? I quickly scrolled through my follow list, grinning to see that almost all of the followers looked like real accounts, not bots sent on a spamming mission.

Ten thousandrealfollowers—readers—excited for my cute little story. I was doing it, I was really doing it.

That does it, I should take Michelle’s advice.I thought,Show the readers the face behind the story they’re excited about. No more delays.

I struggled to finish my reports for the rest of the workday, but I managed, and ended up getting a few emails back from Jacqueline and Brandon giving me the thumbs up on my work. I glanced at the clock and realized that it was already past six and that, based on the silence and emptiness I encountered walking through the office for my supplies check, most of the employees had cleared out already. Sometimes engineers like Mary would stick around if there was a bug they were trying to fix before going home, but as I strode to the break room to take inventory of everything, I saw that even the engineers’ desks were empty.

I glanced around, thinking that there was a good chance that I was the only employee left in the building.

A phenomenon that happened more often than I originally expected when I started working here.

I finished taking stock in the break room. I was wondering where in my house I could set up a live stream, since I didn’t exactly have a scenic backdrop like so many other influencers and authors had. My apartment was a studio, and I had lots of clutter. I wasn’t the most professional person out there, but I also wasn’t trying to live-stream all my unfolded laundry either.

Regardless of the state of my apartment, I was determined to go through with my impromptu face-reveal plan before I chickened out, and then realized that the blank walls that surrounded me were kind of…perfect. I glanced down at my nicer work clothes and played with my hair, remembering that both my hair and makeup were done.

Hmm…

I thought about the blankness of the break room as I tapped my inventory notes away on the company iPad I used. While I plugged the iPad in and stowed it away in my desk drawer (I refused to take work home with me), I thought more about the bright overhead lighting it provided. I didn’t have a fancy ring light or anything at my apartment, either.

If I were going to do a spontaneous livestream and reveal my face to readers, the break room wouldn’t be a bad place to do it. The internet speeds in this building were fantastic.

I did another walk through the office, not seeing anyone. Offices were closed, lights were turned off, and even a peak in upper management’s wing showed the same. Nothing but the sunset outside the floor-to-ceiling exterior windows illuminating the open-concept floor plan.

I nodded to myself as I entered the breakroom again and shut the door behind me, for the unlikely chance that anyone else was still in the office. I set up my phone against a box of tissues to line up my shot. The lighting was directly overhead, so I had to change positions and angles to get the light to not create an insane shadow on my face. It took a few minutes for me to figure out what angle was best and which spot worked, but eventually, I set it all up and got ready to start my first livestream, deciding that the wooden breakroom door behind me was bland enough to be a non-issue.

Having never done a live stream before, I opened the app and scanned the button options, feeling like it couldn’t be that difficult to manage. After a quick internal pep talk to myself, I leaned forward in my chair and pressedstart.

Within seconds, I had a hundred people suddenly tuning into my stream.

“You guys!” I tried my best not to look at myself in the image. Instead, I tried to focus on all the hearts and comments that slowly started to flood the stream, “Ten thousand followers? Are you kidding me?” I giggled at some of the comments that were typed in caps lock, cheering me on, “You’re the freaking best!”

I settled in my chair and started reading everyone’s comments, answering questions about Zayne and Sydney’s story without giving away too much.

“I just wanted to pop on here and introduce myself to all the new faces who followed me recently,” I smiled at some of the excited emojis that started to dance on the screen, “My name is Signe, and don’t worry, I don’t expect you to know how to pronounce it correctly the first time. Also, I’msoexcited for this journey you all helped me on, and—”

The sound of the break room door opening made me snap my mouth shut and turn to look at who was walking in on my livestream.

I first saw the tanned hand with those two distinctive veins, and my heart sank when I saw the rest of Zaid’s large body step into the break room. His head did a double take when he saw me sitting at the break room table, making me gasp and quickly turn around to mute my livestream and slam the phone face down.

I felt my face burst into flames.

Oh god no.

I quickly glanced back as Zaid walked through the breakroom towards the coffee pot, my eyes bulging out of my head when I saw him refill the container with water and grounds, brewing a fresh cup.

I was frozen. My mouth was opening and shutting, trying to figure out what to do.

Do I just end the stream?I glanced at the phone face down on the table, wondering if people were jumping off now. Was this valuable? A muted stream with a black screen while I sat here and tried not to have a panic attack? But I didn’t want to risk lifting my phone to end the stream officially and having Zaid see what I was doing.

“Were you on a call?” Zaid asked, making me jump a little in my seat. I leaned forward with my arms on the table, trying to look casual even though it was anything but.

“Um. Yup.” I shot a nervous glance at my phone while Zaid’s back was still to me, but I could feel his eyes as he turned his head to glance at me over his massive shoulder.

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