Page 27 of Written By a Woman

“What?”

“Her name,” I turned to look at her, still holding the edge of my desk and whispering like we were talking about a deep dark secret, “It’s pronouncedSigne. You keep saying it like ‘Sig-nee’.” I explained.

Salma blinked at me, “Pronounce it for me one more time?”

“Signe,” I repeated, “Like see-nyuh.”

“See-nyuh,” Salma replied, “Signe.”

“Right,” I nodded with a sigh before clasping my fingers together on my side of the desk and facing her, “That’s the French pronunciation, at least. I think the Norwegian pronunciation is more like ‘sing-neh’, but that’s not how she has pronounced it in the past.”

“I gotta be honest, I don’t think I care about the history of her name’s pronunciation that much,” Salma tilted her head at me, “But it is fascinating thatyoudo.”

I lowered my brows at her, “She’s an employee. It’s not unrealistic for management to know how to correctly pronounce an employee’s name.”

“Especially if you plan on saying her name often,” Salma raised an eyebrow at me.

“It’s useful if I need to get her attention in an office with hundreds of employees, yes.” I gave her a bland look.

“Or if you plan on calling out her name in the throes of passion.”

“Sal—” I felt my ears and neck heat up, the situation my sister was hinting at both excited and humiliated me, which led me to gape at her.

“Oh my god, youdo!” Salma gaped back at me in return, covering her mouth with both of her hands, “You want to sleep with Signe!” she whisper-hissed at me.

“I don’t—” I rested my elbows on the desk while scrubbing a hand down my face in frustration, “I mean, yes. But that’s not—”

“Is it just because she wrote smut about you? Because Zaid, you deserve better than that,” Salma still kept her voice low, “There are plenty of other women out there who—”

I sliced a hand through the air, groaning in irritation and cutting her off, “Stop talking. You don’t know what’s going on.”

“Then tell me,” Salma held her hands up and out, clearly at a loss, “Because I don’t understand why you’re suddenly interested in one of your employees.”

“I’m notsuddenlyinterested,” I glared at Salma, annoyed that she cornered me at work to have this conversation. My sister studied me before realization cleared her eyes and her lips parted in a small show of surprise.

“Oh,” Salma’s brow smoothed, “So…this isn’t a new thing between you two.”

“It’s not anything between us, actually,” I leaned to the side so that I could rub my forehead, struggling not to snap at my sister for not understanding what I hadn’t told her yet, “But if she finishes the book, and it becomes as successful as you and Raina think it’ll be, she can quit her job here.” I paused, giving Salma a look of what I would assume to be exhaustion, based on how I was feeling in the moment.

She pressed her lips together, and I could almost hear the wheels in her head turning as she leaned forward and said, “And…if Signe quits working here…?”

I lifted a shoulder, feeling a little ridiculous saying it out loud, “…Maybe, if she seemed interested, I could ask her to dinner without risking a meeting with Human Resources.”

My sister’s eyebrows shot up again, and a playful smile spread across her cheeks as she leaned in again, “You think Signe’s worried about HR? If that was the case, she wouldn’t be staying up at night writing what she does about you.” Then Salma’s nose wrinkled, “Which reminds me, I need to get started on my neglected TBR to forget everything she has ever written about my baby brother.”

I had no idea what a TBR was, but I rolled my eyes at her anyway.

“MaybeIworry about Human Resources,” I retorted. I couldn’t imagine someone like Jacqueline finding out about Signe’s story. I could see Jacqueline’s eye twitching already.

“Why don’t you just fire her?” Salma asked with a tilt of her head, staring over my shoulder in thought, “I mean, then she wouldn’t be your employee and you could ask her out.”

“I feel like no woman would want to go out with a man who fired her for the sole purpose of being able to ask her out,” I gave Salma a bored look. She nodded in agreement before I even finished my sentence, catching up with my train of thought.

“That makes sense. She has mentioned online wanting to quit her day job anyway. It should be her decision,” Salma folded her arms on the edge of my desk again.

“Plus, this job works for her,” I shrugged, “She has time to write. If she had to find another job, she may not be able to do that. I want to help her reach her goal…even if I have to pretend to not know about it for a while.” I stared at my hands as I explained it to her. Silence filled the office for a moment, except for the ticking of a small clock on the shelving unit near the loveseat. After a few moments, I lifted my gaze to stare at my sister, who wasn’t looking at me as if she was getting ready to tease me like I expected her to do.

“Zaid,” Salma sighed as if just coming to some conclusion she already knew the answer to, “This…crush you have on Signe. You’ve had it for a while?”

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