Page 56 of Written By a Woman

God dammit, my silly crush on Zaid was becoming dangerous.

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ZAID

“This was delicious,” Mr. Martin said as he rubbed his round belly with a grin on his face, “I’ll have to come back here again sometime.”

“Of course, we’d love to talk more,” Brandon nodded enthusiastically at the potential investor. I spent the entire meal watching Brandon be at ease in his element. He loved the formality of this meeting. He loved being able to flaunt my family connection to this high-end restaurant. He loved looking like he had a lot of money to show off, so Mr. Martin felt comfortable giving him even more.

All of us were standing, pushing our chairs in while the two of them started talking about the next steps when I took the opportunity to shake Mr. Martin’s hand in farewell as I made my way to the kitchen.

I stayed to the side to let a waiter pass, nodding at them, and allowing myself through the kitchen doors.

“This pasta is overcooked,” my dad called over his shoulder to his staff, “We need a fresh batch!”

“On it,” Ben called out his reply as he made his way toward the pantry, “Oh, hey, Zaid!”

“Hey, man,” I nodded at my brother-in-law while he ran past me, only to meet my father’s eyes as he turned to see who his sous chef was greeting.

“Zaid!” My dad greeted me before addressing the rest of the busy kitchen, “I’m taking five, everything should be how I left it when I’m back.”

“Yes, chef!” The rest of the staff replied in unison.

I grinned while I followed my dad out to the bar, taking a seat at leather barstools. The bartender nodded their head at me in greeting, setting a wine glass in front of my father and a carbonated water in front of me.

“I haven’t seen you here in a while,” my dad hummed as he took a sip, “I knew you had another investor meeting, but I didn’t think you’d have time to say hi.”

“I’m making time,” I lifted a shoulder, “Brandon seemed to have things covered, the guy seemed very amicable.”

“That’s nice,” my dad nodded, “…Have you talked to him about stepping down again?”

I froze, realizing that no, I hadn’t. I had been too focused on Signe. It was easy to be distracted by her when she was the first and last person I saw in my work day. I had completely forgotten about bringing up the fact that I sent Brandon that email, well, a while ago now.

But then I realized he hadn’t ever brought it up with me either, which concerned me. Maybe I never hit send? Maybe it got sent to his junk folder? Or didn’t go through at all? Brandon not letting me know he got my email for potential replacements was very unsettling, to say the least.

“Not yet, but I think I will soon since today went so smoothly,” I nodded to him as I sipped my water, “I’m very ready to step down.” Mostly so that was one less thing keeping me from asking out the woman of my dreams.

“That’ll be good, I hope it happens for you soon,” my dad nodded to himself before glancing over his shoulder, “I’m going to tell you something, but your mother is going to be upset at me for telling you.”

I quirked a brow at him, “Okay.”

“She’s talking about setting you up,” my dad leveled me with his dark hazel eyes, “Several times now. I’ve discouraged her from doing so, but you know your mama.”

I groaned and scraped a hand over my face, “Yeah, you can only do so much.”

“Unfortunately,” my dad chuckled, “She just wants to see you happy, even if she entertains the idea of overstepping from time to time.”

“I get it,” I sat there with him at the bar, wondering if I could take the moment we had where it was just my dad and me, to tell him about one woman in particular I wouldn’t exactly hate being set up with.

But Signe and I weren’t anything.

We were coworkers who got along and joked around, and that was it.

I knew what my father would say, too, about how I shouldn’t put one of my employees in a position like that. He once ripped into two of his employees because he caught them making out in the freezer, so I had a general idea of where he stood on workplace relationships.

“I’ll try to stop by here more often, though,” I added, setting my glass down and checking the time on my phone. I needed to get back to the office.

“I’ll never say no to that,” my father stood with me, wrapping me up in a tight hug and patting my back with his palm, before kissing my cheek and saying, “I love you.”

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