Page 39 of Written By a Woman

“I still think you should tell me who it is,” Jacqueline gave me a pointed look, “It won’t do any good to keep them a secret. If I know who it is, I can call them both in for a meeting and have this discussion privately and directly. Also, I can remind them not to do anything inappropriate while in the office.”

Logically, I knew that she was right. It was the responsible, professional way to go about it after all. However, I also knew that these were Signe’s friends. I didn’t even know if one of the women was officially out yet, and my gut prioritized their right to privacy over the company’s official policies.

“Maybe I’ll approach them myself and send them your way,” I lied again as I braced my hands on my knees and stood, “Thanks for letting me interrupt your workday.”

“Anytime, Zaid,” Jacqueline smiled at me as she turned back to her computer, hopefully moving on from our conversation, even though there was little to no chance that I could move on myself.

I was distracted the rest of the day, constantly spiraling about how my position wasn’t just a position I wanted to step down from for personal reasons, but also a position that made my intentions with Signe significantly more problematic.

* * *

I foundmyself staring at Brandon’s image on the screen as he spoke, all of us in the office, but taking this meeting with a potential collaboration over video call. Brandon was in his element, excited and charismatic about the technology we were building as a company, and how we were feeling more confident about incorporating our code with hardware.

Yes, Brandon was working hard to ensure the company took off as we had envisioned all these years ago, but I was realizing that at some point our focuses had changed. While Brandon had stayed focused on Sun Steer for the past decade or so, keeping the motivations for success high, I had started to concern myself with other things.

Things like, what type of work I enjoy spending forty-hours a week on.

Or gorgeous red heads that I couldn’t keep my eyes off of.

He still hadn’t responded to the email I sent him weeks ago, and part of me felt like I was nagging if I brought it up again with him so soon.

But, if I had managed to find the courage to approach Jacqueline, then I needed to find the same courage to approach my old friend.

ChapterEight

SIGNE

I was walking backfrom refilling my coffee in the breakroom, jotting notes down on my phone for ways to fix the major plot hole that my editor pointed out to me a few days ago, when I heard Zaid laugh.

I stopped in my tracks and immediately lifted my head up and to the side, spotting him leaning against the wall with Nikhil. Both of them were staring at me with grins on their faces, and I glanced behind myself to see what they were smiling at. After seeing nothing and nobody behind me, I met their gaze again.

“Nice sweatshirt,” Nikhil explained.

I glanced down at the black sweatshirt that had the words, “My Body Hurts And I’m Mad At The Government” in white letters and returned their smiles.

“It’s a fan favorite.” I smiled.

“Fans?” Zaid asked, “You have fans?”

I opened my mouth before shutting it, realizing that bragging about my fanbase who was currently still obsessing over a fictional character inspired by a very non-fictional man probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do.

“One day,” I winked, recovering.

Nikhil grinned and started chatting with Zaid again.

And that was when my day went to hell because I suddenly felt a warm wet gush in my underwear.

Shit.

I stayed standing in my spot, glancing at my phone again to check my health app to see if I had gotten my days mixed up.

I didn’t.

My period just decided to come six days early. Ugh.

I quickly walked over to my desk to grab my purse, opening the hidden zipper pocket to grab a tampon, but feeling my chest tighten in panic when I realized that there weren’t any in there.

I started opening the small bank of desk drawers underneath my desk, desperately searching for a tampon or pad orsomething.