Page 24 of Written By a Woman

“Hi, little Miss,” I wiggled my fingers at her daughter, before she got distracted with something off to the side and immediately left to go do whatever it was four-year-olds did.

“I just wanted to call and see how the meeting with your agent went,” Eloise turned the camera back to her, tucking her pale blonde hair behind her ears. In the background, her husband was chasing their four-year-old down the hallway of their home. Eloise easily tuned them out, pretending her husband wasn’t riling their daughter up during her call.

“Oh my god,” I was relieved to receive her excitement, because it made me put all my concerns about the Zaid clusterfuck on the back burner while I fangirled with my good friend about where my career was headed, “So good, Michelle is such a sweetheart and I really think she’s going to help me get the story out there. Right now, we are working on developmental edits.”

“Ooo,” Eloise wiggled her pale eyebrows and winked, “I can’t wait to read it.”

“I’ll be sure to send you an advanced copy if a publisher ends up wanting it.” I had no idea if I could do that, and what I would hypothetically have control over, but whatever.

“Looking forward to it,” She sighed, “I was actually calling to tell you something.” Eloise looked a little excited but paused when her husband, Logan, and their daughter ran behind her again. Iris squealed maniacally as she barely escaped her dad’s clutches.

Damn, I missed that little girl. It had been too long since I hung out with her.

“Are you ready?” Eloise focused back in, “Because…I’m pregnant!”

I gasped, my eyes bulged, and I immediately started squealing in excitement. I even went as far as to jump up off of my couch and run around my apartment for the theatrics of it all, “You’re pregnant!”

“Yes!” Eloise giggled, matching my energy by getting up from her seat and doing a victory lap around her house with her husband and daughter, “I’m going to birth another one of his massive babies!”

I cackled, pausing my run to laugh at her first words after telling me she was expecting again. During my pause, Iris had reached up and yanked Eloise’s phone down so her cute little dark ringlets could fill the screen and tell me, “I was a big, healthy, and strong baby!”

“Yes, you were!” Eloise nodded encouragingly at her daughter, her eyes softening when Logan finally scooped up little Iris and planted a chaste kiss at Eloise’s temple.

Then the big guy turned to me and waved hello before walking away with a giggling Iris in his arms. It really looked like the man was enjoying retirement.

“Anyway, we need to get together again soon! We’re going out of town for a few weeks with my parents, but maybe when we get back you and I can get breakfast or something together? Maybe a girl’s night?” Eloise moved the phone so that her wide blue eyes took up the entirety of the screen. I could practically see the veins in the whites of her eyes with how comically close she put them to the camera.

“Of course!” I sighed as I slumped back on the couch again, “I doubt I’ll have much going on unless the editing process ends up ruining my life.”

Eloise rolled her eyes before pulling the camera away so I could see the rest of her gorgeous face, “Whatever, you’re going to rock whatever it is you write. I’m so excited for you, you have no idea. I’m going to make Logan read whatever you end up publishing, too.”

I widened my eyes, “I don’t know how I feel about your husband reading smut that I wrote.”

“We’re all adults, it’s fine,” Eloise shook her head once before a loud crash sounded in the background, and her head jerked to the side, “Shoot, I should probably go.”

“Sounds like it,” I laughed, “Congratulations again!” I grinned, my cheeks hurting from the excitement I was feeling for my dear friend.

“Thank you! Talk to you soon!” Eloise pretended to kiss the camera before ending the call.

I laughed to myself, loving how chaotic her family life seemed to be.

Suddenly, my apartment felt empty, but that call with her really helped elevate my mood. My mood always elevated whenever I talked to Eloise, even more so when we actually got together, but I realized that unexpected call was probably what I needed to finally be able to take a deep breath and relax.

This allowed me to think more critically about how I needed to deal with my followers continually messaging me with screenshots of Zaid’s blurred image from the livestream.

* * *

Thankfully,based on what I could see, nobody was able to snuff out Zaid’s identity or real name, which made me breathe a sigh of relief. I didn’t think he had any social media, which usually made me not trust a person. What could someonepossiblybe hiding if they actively chose not to have social media accounts? In this day and age, it was, in fact, an active choice to make.

This time, though, I realized that there were benefits to keeping your private life off of the internet. Like—and this is just an example—when your employee decides to write an open-door romance with a character who looks just like you, and the internet catches a glimpse of your face and realizes what she did.

I needed to say something. I had some readers privately messaging me begging for the details of the mystery man who walked through my live feed. Maybe if I just crafted some lame-sounding PR statement that wasn’t necessarily a lie, but made it sound like Zaid wasn’t the guy Zayne was based off of, the internet would calm down?

It was worth a shot.

I had worked too hard for this. I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I didn’t want it all to end.

I was desperate for success.

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