Page 53 of Written By a Woman

I released a gasp of laughter right when Jamie’s cheeks started to heat under my reaction to their news.

“You sneaky motherfu—” I cut myself off because I was, in fact, at work, “That’s amazing! Oh my god!” I stood up from my chair and ran around my desk to the two women. They were grinning and prepared themselves for the group hug I initiated, squishing them together while I wrapped my arms around each of them. The bonus of being the tallest one in the group, “I’m so happy for you two. Oh my god, I had no idea.”

“That was by design,” Jamie’s voice was muffled against my shoulder before I finally released them, “I wasn’t quite ready to, well, come out yet…”

I pressed my hands to my cheeks, “I’m so honored, thank you so much for trusting me.”

Jamie grinned while Mary rubbed her back, pride beaming from her, “Jamie was really touched by you trusting us with your secret, so we talked about it, and she thought it was time.”

Jamie nodded, “And now we need to tell…” her voice trailed off when her eyes landed on something over my shoulder. I turned to see Jacqueline walking towards us, wearing a cream-colored pantsuit with her dark hair slicked back in a perfect bun on her head. She was tapping away on her iPad, but when she stepped closer to my desk she finally looked up and saw all of us staring at her.

Jacqueline gave us a small friendly smile, before scooting her glasses up the bridge of her nose some more and asking, “Am I interrupting?”

“No,” All three of us answered, making me giggle.

“Actually,” Jamie forced her shoulders back, the same posture she had when she stepped off the elevator a few minutes ago, “Do you have time to meet with the two of us today?”

Jacqueline immediately tapped on her iPad to pull up her schedule for the day, “I have some time before lunch, about thirty minutes or so. Can I ask what for?” Jacqueline lifted her gaze to my two friends, and I beamed when Jamie nodded to herself and replied.

“Mary and I want to disclose our relationship.”

I immediately started walking back towards my desk, wanting to make the situation feel more casual and less like a formal gathering as Jamie came out to a second person today.

“Ah,” Jacqueline nodded, a smile tugging on her lips, “I can help you with that. I’ll have the document ready for you both before you show up.” I had to hand it to her, she didn’t seem surprised at all that Mary and Jamie were dating. I wondered if there had been some sort of sign or body language that Jacqueline had picked up on that I didn’t.

I thought I was an observant person, but apparently not.

“Just as a reminder,” Jacqueline added their meeting to her schedule and gave the two women a look that reminded me of one my mom would give, “You both are still at work and while it’s none of my business what you both do on your own time, it’s important to keep in mind that passionate displays of affection shouldn’t happen on company property. More importantly, the breakroom,” Jacqueline raised a dark eyebrow right when both Mary and Jamie stiffened in surprise at her words, “You two haven’t been exhibitingthatkind of behavior, right?”

I had never seen Mary speechless before, but I loved seeing the woman blush in clear embarrassment for the first time.

“N-no,” Mary shook her head as she stammered her reply. “We wouldn’t think of doing that, right?”

“Not at all,” Jamie added.

Both women used tones that heavily implied that they both, did in fact, do that.

Ah,that’swhy Jacqueline wasn’t surprised.

“Glad to hear it. I also want you to know that I am forbidden from disclosing relationships between employees to others. If the only people you want to know are standing at Signe’s desk right now, it’ll stay that way until either of you decide otherwise.” Jacqueline nodded to them, before turning to me, “Can you help me with this?” She airdropped a document to my iPad, and I opened it up for her to walk me through what she needed that morning while Jamie and Mary continued to their own desks, finally starting the workday.

I was so, so proud of Jamie and Mary. Mary for being patient with someone like Jamie, and Jamie for not only being brave enough to come out, but to come out to me and her company within the span of minutes. Huge steps were being made, and I made a mental note to squeeze her again the next time I saw her.

ChapterEleven

SIGNE

Eloise: Thank you for the soup!

Me: Of course girly, please let me know if you need anything else!

I pocketedmy cell phone before walking into the office the following Monday, exhausted from finally ironing out a solution to that stupid plot hole I never wanted to think about again. At this point I was almost done reworking the manuscript with Layla’s first round of feedback, and I was getting the manuscript for what Layla described as line edits.

After opening up to Mary and Jamie about my life choices, I decided to reach out to Eloise again. I knew it was difficult for her to do much at the moment, because pregnancy wasn’t an easy experience on her. I remembered her having constant nausea and exhaustion with her first pregnancy, so I assumed that this second one was just as bad.

I ended up sending over some chicken noodle soup from a favorite diner of ours, texting her husband to let him know I was feeding the two of them that evening.

Logan just texted back a thumbs-up emoji, because men.

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