Page 113 of Written By a Woman

“I don’t care about that at all,” I mumbled against his bare shoulder, “I’m not worried about you stealing my thunder.”

“If anything,” Zaid replied, “I hope that I helped direct some readers toward your thunder.”

“Yeah,” I giggled, leaning back and looking at him, “You did.”

Zaid squeezed me again, before pulling back enough to press a firm kiss to my lips and murmuring, “I’m so proud of you, Signe.”

I sighed, relaxing all of my muscles because of the comfort that was his embrace, “I love you, Zaid.”

ChapterTwenty-Eight

SIGNE

Walking backinto the office was a big step for me, mostly because I had a myriad of emotions, making every step that I took toward the building that much more difficult. Excitement, anxiety, embarrassment. I hadn’t exactly left on Friday on the best of terms, and I knew that I needed to put on my big kid pants and have a chat with Jacqueline about everything.

I just really didn’t want to.

But I really wanted to continue seeing Zaid without issue, because I loved him with all of my heart.

The squeeze of his hand wrapped around mine helped, as we both stepped into the elevators that lead to the Sun Steer Technologies suite.

Zaid leaning down to press his lips against the crown of my head behind the safety of the elevator doors also helped.

I squeezed his hand one last time before the doors opened and my front desk was revealed to us.

He held one hand over the doors, keeping them open while I dramatically leaned forward, glancing down the left and right of the large entryway and seeing nobody else.

“What are you doing?” Zaid whispered, leaning forward like I was, to also check our surroundings.

“I’m seeing if she’s here yet,” I whispered back, finally stepping off the elevator and jogging over to my desk. I reached the elevated lip of it and stood on my tiptoes to look and see if she was hiding underneath it.

She was not.

“Habibti, it’s going to be fine,” Zaid chuckled as he pressed his hand against my shoulder and pressed a parting kiss to my head again, “You’re not the one stepping down today.”

“Are you sure that’s what you want to do?” I chewed on the inside of my cheek as I turned to face him with my question, “I know you’ve wanted to step down as CTO for a while now, but—” Zaid lifted a long finger to my lips, smiling as he effectively shushed me.

“Brandon knows this is what I’ve wanted,” Zaid shook his head once, “If he’s surprised, or upset, that’s entirely on him. I’m willing to take a position better suited for me if he offers, but I’ll never struggle to find work elsewhere either.”

I stared up at him, in awe that we were talking about him quitting his job to help him reach his own career goals, as well as addressing those pesky unethical power dynamics that Jacqueline had warned him about all those months ago.

After we reconnected in my apartment for the rest of the weekend, I was filled in on some things that were going on during the last few months. Including, but not limited to, how Jacqueline had pretty much warned him off from ever gaining enough confidence to ask me out while we were both employees at Sun Steer.

Which meant that I needed to talk to her and humbly ask that I keep my job for the time being.

At least until my first book was published and I could see how successful it ended up being.

Just behind us the elevator dinged, and Jamie and Mary walked into the office.

“I saw your video,” Mary chirped, winking at Zaid and me, “Jamie almost passed out from the cuteness of it.”

“She’s not wrong,” Jamie grinned, a light pink blush coloring her cheeks and brightening her blue eyes, “Nice going, boss.”

“I’m not really your boss,” he replied, “Not for long, anyway.”

“Does Brandon know you’re going to quit?” Mary asked him.

“I’m hoping the threat of me quitting will get him to take my requests just a tad more seriously, but I’ll let you know as soon as I have updates.” Zaid smiled when Mary held her fist out to him to bump, returning the gesture with a chuckle.

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