Page 100 of A Certain Step
Sahar wiggled on her Birkenstocks and joined Willa at the door. “A smile! Good news, I hope?”
Willa hadn’t even realized what expression she’d been wearing. “He wants us to take a few days off for his birthday and head up to his parents’ cabin.”
Sahar flapped her arms. “Gah. That sounds fun and everything you deserve.”
They locked the door, stepped into the lift, and went down to the lobby.
“How do you feel?” Willa asked, taking a big step to avoid a puddle outside their flat.
Sahar sighed with surprising contentment. “I’m happy with my decision. He wasn’t good for me. Seeing all these healthy relationships in front of me, you with Ethan, knowing you’ve always loathed the prick. How he’d always cause some sort of an argument? I’m happy to have him out of my life. Maybe I’ll get lucky and find a best friend who will later fall in love with me.”
Willa laughed heartily. “I want that more than anything else for you.”
“But I’m swearing off men for a while. I need to be on my own. It feels like it’s all drained me—the fights, the one-way commitment. I don’t know how much more of myself I can give.”
“If that’s what you want, then I support you fully,” Willa said.
Sahar pursed her lips in thought. “I also think it’s high time I stop chickening out and dye my hair red.”
Willa gasped. Sahar had wanted to dye her hair red since they first met, always backing out at the last minute because she didn’t want to bleach her hair in the process. Willa was the same in that regard; she’d only ever gotten lowlights. Still, Sahar had always debated it. Every year or so, it’d come up, with no action following the temptation.
“I’m serious. Fuck it. I’ll make an appointment. Come with me and force me to do it. If I loathe it, I’ll dye it back.” Luckily, their jobs required wigs, so they could do whatever they wanted with their hair.
Willa looked on proudly, then pondered for an instant. Sahar should do it. It’d look smashing on her, and quite frankly, one of them should be brave in that regard. In response, Willa proposed a wager. “If you dye your hair,I’llmake a public post about Ethan.”
Sahar stopped in her tracks. Her mouth fell open. Willa had never publicly shared about any of her boyfriends before. The shock on Sahar’s face made her snort.
“Sod off. You’d never,” Sahar huffed.
She said it. She meant it. She’d do it for Sahar. And for Ethan, too. “You dye your hair, and I’ll post about Ethan on his birthday.”
Sahar lifted a finger. “On your feed. Not in stories.”
“On my feed,” Willa confirmed.
Sahar brought her hand over to shake. Willa extended hers.
“Then it’s settled,” Sahar declared.
When they gotto Amanda’s Coffee, Jay greeted them from behind the counter. “Sahar, Willa—afternoon.”
Sahar looked at him with concern. “Mate, do you ever take days off? Is this legal?”
A closed-mouth chuckle escaped him. “I am the manager,” he reminded them. Sahar, more specifically.
“Yes, but even managers deserve time off,” Sahar replied.
Jay shrugged.“One called out. Another is sick, so here I am. The usual?” he asked.
“Yes, please, but add in another strudel. This one has influenced me,” Sahar answered, pointing to Willa.
Willa made a face that could be translated to “What can I say?”
They paid and watched Jay get to work while Dahlia took orders from the people behind them. Willa looked from the man behind the counter to Sahar.
Physically, they’d be stunning together. He was tall, with a strong bone structure, a great scruff, good hair,glasses,a booming, melodic voice, and a killer smile that seemed only to peek through when Sahar was around.
Jay wasn’t unfriendly per se; he was always respectful, but there was a clear difference in his demeanor when Sahar wasn’t around. Willa had noticed it from the moment he and Sahar started talking about a football match, which led to conversations about a video game they’d both been playing. Something told Willa that if Sahar hadn’t been taken, he would’ve figured out a way to spend more time with her.
