Page 69 of Written By a Woman

“Don’t worry, there’s hope. In this video I’m going to be discussing all the tips and tricks needed, and why. Your clit-owning partner will thank me.” I paused the video, checking the time and seeing that it was late and that I should probably go to sleep.

But also…

“First…” the woman’s voice rang after I hit play and continued for the sake of education. This seemed like a much better source than anything Pornhub might have to offer on the subject, and the no-nonsense way the woman delivered the information about the female orgasm made me realize I had a lot more to learn about it.

Was I being too hopeful about the opportunity to practice this new educational material with a certain redhead? Perhaps. Even though, if everything went to plan, I wouldn’t have the chance to show off my, well,skillsfor a long time. Until after Signe finalized her book deal and quit. After I asked her out, and after I managed to “woo” her enough for her to confidently delete her dating apps.

Go big or go home, I guess.

An hour and a half had passed when I finally halted my research, after deciding to follow that blonde woman’s account specifically because she made lots of videos on the proper way to please a woman. I felt much more educated on the subject of giving women orgasms, so I finally closed my eyes and went to bed.

My dreams about Signe weren’t exactly tame that night.

I was scolding myself the next morning when my alarm went off and I realized that I needed to take care of some things in the shower if I was going to be able to handle being in the workplace with Signe again.

But I needed to be professional.

I was management, and it was inappropriate for me to be sporting an erection simply from learning how to take care of a woman properly with hopes that one day, in the far future, Signe would want to be that woman.

* * *

SIGNE

“I watched the show you recommended last night,” I informed Mary as she settled into the back seat of Zaid’s Tesla, “It was quite the titillating experience.” I turned in the passenger seat to wiggle my eyebrows suggestively. Mary’s eyebrows came down flat.

“Not a good enough reason to use the word ‘titillating’,” she shook her head once, already pulling her phone out of her pocket and settling into the backseat, still grumpy that I beat her to the passenger seat by calling “dibs.”

The sound of another woman huffing in amusement made us all look to the other end of the parking lot where Jaqueline was walking towards us, a hand over her mouth for a moment before she removed it and revealed her professional but friendly smile, “Ladies, are you busy?”

Zaid was still on the phone, speaking low and resting his hips against the hood of this fancy electric car. Mine and Mary’s windows were rolled down, so we leaned closer to them to chat with Jacqueline.

“I just wanted to make sure the two of you feel safe with the travel plans,” She gave me a pointed look, “And that the hotel accommodations are something you’re comfortable with.”

Mary and I exchanged a curious look before I nodded encouragingly at the head of human resources, “We feel safe, and I booked the hotel rooms myself. So it isn’t a situation I’m worried about.”

What was she implying, exactly?

Out of all the men in the company, Zaid was probably the one I had absolutely no reservations about traveling with at all. Nikhil an immediate second. If anything, knowing what I have written about the CTO,hewas probably the one who should be checking in with Jacqueline like this. But Zaid didn’t know what I had written about him, so here we were.

“Alright,” Jacqueline nodded, thrumming her fingers on the car door, “If either of you need anything, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me.” She gave us a warm smile before stepping back from the car and wiggling her fingers goodbye. She then nodded her head at Zaid, who was still on the phone but nodded back at her and left.

“…Do you ever get the impression that Jacqueline has some trauma?” Mary asked.

“What do you mean?” I watched her walk back into the building, probably to interview more software engineers since hiring was chaos lately. I had helped her with a lot of onboarding paperwork in the last week.

“She’s always very protective of the female-identifying employees,” I heard Mary shift in her seat behind me, “More so than I am used to from an HR rep.”

I sat with Mary’s thoughts for a moment.

She had a point.

“Didn’t Jacqueline start just a few months before I did?” I asked as soon as the driver’s side door opened and Zaid took his seat at the wheel.

“She started about six months before you,” Zaid replied, inserting himself into the conversation, “Right after we got our Series A funding.”

“Ah, that’s right,” Mary chimed in from the back seat.

“What’s Series A funding?” I had heard this mentioned at the office a few times before, but I didn’t understand all the terminology and details. All I knew was that Sun Steer was a “rapidly growing tech startup” and that seemed like enough information for me to do my job.

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