Page 50 of Written By a Woman

“How smutty was it?” Mary asked, surprising me with her question.

“Um…pretty smutty.”

“On a scale of one to five,” Mary pressed.

“I don’t know,” I threw my hands up in the air, “The guy was going down on the woman and calling her a good girl. Rate that how you wish.”

Jamie cackled behind her hand over her mouth, her shoulders shaking as her face turned the brightest red I had ever seen. Mary just smirked at me and wiggled her eyebrows, “Damn, Signe. What else goes on in that pretty little head of yours?”

“It’s a filthy, filthy place,” I admitted, “And Zaid read a glimpse of it.”

“Did he realize the scene was inspired by him?” Jamie asked with her own eyebrow wiggle. What the hell, that was a Mary move. What was going on?

“No,” I rubbed my forehead because a headache was starting to slowly make itself known, “He actually ended up apologizing for even reading it.”

“What? Really?” Mary asked.

“Yeah,” I grinned a little at the memory, “He knew I was embarrassed about it as I tried to get my phone back, but he held it up out of reach and used his arm to keep me away so he could continue to read it and mortify me. I don’t think he realized it wasmybook, just a book that I was reading earlier.”

Another few seconds of quiet passed between us while my friends absorbed this new piece of information about the clusterfuck that was my life. Jamie ended up being the first one to clear her throat and break the silence while we waited our turn for the one single dressing room stall in the store.

“…It sounds like he was trying to take some mental notes about women’s pleasure.”

“That’s exactly what I was about to say.” Mary agreed with an aggressive head nod.

“Are you serious?” a horrified and amused giggle erupted out of my throat with the words.

“Anyways, you two must be close if he’s able to tease you about the smut he thinks you’re reading,” Mary gave me a look that almost felt accusatory, “I mean…you got lucky. Imagine if Jacqueline saw smut on your phone in the office.”

I felt all the blood drain from my face at the thought, “Oh god.”

“Yeah,” Mary nodded along, “But he was cool with it. Cool enough to keep reading just to tease you, which, if we think about it, is an insane thing to tease an employee about.”

I sat with her words for a moment, realizing she was right.

“But he’s the sweetest guy,” I added, “He must be too laid back to get worked up about things like that. I mean, I yelled at him over tampons, and he took it like a champ. I don’t imagine Zaid being the kind of guy to get upset very easily. I don’t think he gets upset at all, actually.”

Mary and Jamie both exchanged a look before staring back at me.

“As a software engineer, who works with a team of very annoying software engineers, I can tell you that Zaid does, in fact, get upset about things.”

I tilted my head at Mary in surprise, “He does? I’ve never seen him truly upset.”

“You’ve never seen him upset withyou,” Jamie defended Mary, “I’ve seen him get annoyed with the sales and product teams quite a few times. He never yells or raises his voice or anything inappropriate, but his words are stern and leave no room for misinterpretation.”

I just sat there, tapping my foot as I thought about it, “I…haven’t seen that side of him…actually, that’s a lie. He was short with me once before.”

When I first started at the company, but it was obvious to me then that he was just a guy who had a lot on his plate and didn’t have time to shoot the shit.

I empathized, Zaid’s job didn’t exactly sound easy breezy.

“Probably because he doesn’t get upset with you—oh my god,” Mary gasped and turned to look at Jamie so quickly that her dark hair whipped me in the face. She even startled Jamie who looked back at Mary with alarm at the sudden shift of demeanor, “What if Zaid is into Signe?”

“Oh my god, I can see it,” Jamie nodded enthusiastically a second after she processed Mary’s hypothesis, excitement pulling a wide smile on her cheeks, “Can you imagine?”

“I cantotallysee it,” Mary whipped her head back around to me, “What if—”

“Stop,” I reached forward and slapped my hands over Mary’s mouth, muffling whatever else she was about to say, “I can’t…I just can’t…”

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