Written by a Woman

Chapter 30

Chapter Thirty

SIGNE: MONTHS LATER

“How are presales going?” Jamie asked as she slid into the seat next to Mary. She leaned forward and smacked a quick peck on Mary’s cheek, who had a mouthful of waffles and was leaning over her plate of food like it was her last meal.

“They’re going,” I smiled. I tried not to focus too much on how the book was doing. I still had just under a year before it was officially published, but when I hit a number in presales that I only ever dreamt of having, I realized keeping track of all the numbers was a surefire way to send me into an imposter syndrome spiral.

“But you’re still not ready to quit, right?” Mary asked around her mouthful of food, a threatening glare narrowing her eyes. I nodded at her, even though I still didn’t plan on working at Sun Steer forever, I wanted to wait until I saw how my book did once it was published in the world before I quit. I had a three-book deal with my publisher, and I knew that I could still fulfill that obligation and keep my General Manager position just fine.

Once Zaid finally had a firm talk with Brandon about how he was desperate to step down or quit, Brandon finally started to take the option of hiring someone else as CTO more seriously. Apparently, that casual conversation we had in Zaid’s car on the way to the airport had some weight, because a month ago it was announced that Mary’s hot cousin—excuse me—Leo Turner, would be filling the position of Chief Technology Officer.

Sun Steer was still rapidly growing, adding a couple more teams of software engineers to the workforce to keep up with sustainability. Zaid would be working alongside Nikhil now, managing a team of engineers on his own, and having more opportunities to build and write the software that started it all.

I could see how much happier he already was, even though Zaid still had a couple more weeks as CTO to give Leo time to make the move from the UK to the US. The fact that he could see a light at the end of the tunnel really affected his mood.

Stepping down from CTO would also mean we could sneak off and have our own little lunch dates more often, since we would still be working at the same company, and I was confident that everyone there knew that Zaid and I were together.

“Hi Jacqueline—whoa,” Mary sat up from her crouched position as the chair next to me squeaked and Jacqueline threw herself into the seat.

“I’ll take a mimosa,” Jacqueline called over her shoulder to the waiter who had just walked up to take her order. The waiter widened their eyes before nodding in appreciation, “On a Tuesday morning in your work clothes. Respect.”

Jacqueline gave them a smile before she slumped in her seat.

“Is everything all right?” I asked, knowing that Jacqueline needed to be asked directly about herself, to share how she was feeling or what was going on in her life.

I still knew very little about her, but I loved that she was going out of her way to be part of the women friend group at the office. Alice had joined us on these weekly brunches we started having at a cute little café that had opened a block away from Sun Steer, before she suddenly quit and took a better offer at Blix.

The social media company that Jacqueline and the new CFO, Nicole, had come from.

Mary was annoyed that she was once again the only female identifying software engineer, and that Nicole hadn’t taken us up on our offer to join us for these weekly brunches.

It took Jacqueline some time to warm up to our friendship, so I was willing to give Nicole the same.

“I swear, your cousin,” Jacqueline pressed her lips together while resting her elbow on the table and pinching the bridge of her nose, even going as far as to rub her perfectly groomed brows to ease some sort of frustration she was feeling, “Is the most annoying person on the planet.”

Mary just laughed, “What did he do?”

“If I get one more goddamn email from him asking for more information on benefits, explaining how they work, or however else he is actively choosing to avoid looking it all up on the app himself, I’m going to scream,” Jacqueline grumbled, only perking up when the waiter returned with her mimosa. She didn’t let the waiter set the glass down on the table, instead opting to take it from their hand directly.

They just laughed a little as they sauntered off to check on the other tables.

“He’s not the most organized,” Mary shrugged, “But he’s very talented, and great with people. You’ll love him once you get to work with him outside of your email exchanges. I promise.”

Jacqueline shook her head once, clearly disbelieving everything Mary was saying, and took another large gulp of her mimosa.

My phone vibrated in my pocket, so while Jacqueline continued to grumble, I pulled it out to read the text I just received.

Salma: My coworker just told me that she got approved to be an ARC reader this morning!

I smirked; I had little to no control over who got approved to receive advanced reader copies of my book to review, but I responded with a variety of excited and celebratory emojis anyway.

Raina: What the hell? Why didn’t I get approved?

Me: You still don’t want to read it, I promise.

Raina: I can be objective! And just skip past any scene with Zayne.

Salma: That’s half the book, you doofus.

Me: I’ll be sure to get you an ARC for the next one, Raina, I promise.

I had already started drafting a second novel, something my publisher had been on me about for a few weeks now. I was nervous about diving back into that fictional world again, mostly because of all the anxiety I felt when writing it in the first place, but Zaid made sure I stayed motivated.

Really motivated.

Sure, most of the incomplete draft I had of book two was just smut at this point, but writing was writing, and I could always go back and piece the plot together later. There was still value to me being able to slap words on a page to get the creative process going again.

My phone buzzed again, this time from my favorite man in the world.

Zaiddy: Guess what I just found.

He then sent a picture of the scream mask he had worn in his office last Halloween. I giggled, ignoring the curious looks from the women around me, as I typed my reply to him.

Me: Don’t lose it this time.

Zaiddy: Is this seriously a thing?

Me: Put it on tonight and see for yourself.

Zaiddy: Whatever you want, habibti.

I was confident I had officially peaked in life.

Hearing him call me endearing terms like “love of my life” or “light of my eye” or “my moon” in Arabic would never get old. Neither would reading those pet names from his text messages. Or in the cute little handwritten notes he’d leave next to me any time he went into the office before me, and I was still asleep.

Zaid Ansara wasn’t perfect, but he was pretty damn close to it.

Because he was mine.

And even though we wouldn’t be living this picture-perfect life forever, taking turns staying the night at each other’s places, going to work together, and leaving together most days, I was excited to see what came next for the two of us.

Looking back, I was glad that I had the insane idea of writing him into my first published novel because even though it was probably one of the most anxious seasons of my adult life, it landed me here.

I didn’t want to be anywhere else.

THE END