Page 25 of A Certain Step
Tulip lifted her little head and stared at the wall next to him.
He scratched underneath her chin. “I’m going to pretend you’re mad at mebecause I was too much of a coward to tell Willa how I feel.”
She did not react. Still, he took it as validation. He sat there until Willa’s text vibrated on his phone.
WILLA
I’m home, alive, and found fix-it fan fiction to read in the car.
He chuckled.
ETHAN
Send it over if it’s good.
WILLA
??
8
WILLA
Sahar and Willa sat side by side in their dressing room when Naomi walked in, phone in hand, giddy smile on full display for theMidnights at Pemberley’ssocial media account takeover.
She looked toward the screen and pressed record. “And these two rockstars are absolute icons in our production,” Naomi chirped. She had already done her hair and makeup, so she only needed to change into her first costume before starting the show.
Sahar leaned back in her chair, extending her arm out to pull Naomi closer. Naomi wedged herself between the two women and then turned the camera sideways to catch all three of them in the frame. Willa and Sahar looked at each other and kissed either side of Naomi’s cheek.
Naomi squealed jubilantly. “Honestly, if you aren’t welcomed into work like this, you need to quit, friends. It’s not worth it otherwise,” she said to the camera.
“Cheers to that,” Sahar concurred.
Naomi perked up and stopped recording. “I still can’t believe they wanted me to do this takeover on the first night of previews, but it’s surprisingly helping with the jitters.”
“You’re gonna kill it, love,” Willa pointed out.
Naomi’s eyes expanded with warmth. “Thank you. It’s just so unbelievable to finally have this moment after all these years on Broadway. There are so many of us on this show who’ve been fighting tooth and nail. Gah! I’m emotional. I love you both so damn much. I’m going to go bug some of the boys now.”
“And we’ll be refreshing to watch everything you post,” Sahar said.
Willa turned back to the mirror to apply false lashes. “Do you ever think about how lucky we are with this show? Like every single person is a genuinely good egg, no one is fake, and we all get on so well that it’s basically unheard of.”
Sahar agreed. “No, you’re right. A cast like this is once in a lifetime. There’s always someone who messes something up or causes drama, but we hit the jackpot here. We should be a package deal in all other productions. Hire one, hire all.”
Willa chuckled in agreement and inched closer to the mirror, holding a set of lashes in her hand. She stuck one on and used her hand as a fan to dry the glue. After she placed the second and picked up her lipstick, they heard a loud screech that sounded like a gaggle of people bursting into a fit of laughter.
Charging out of their dressing room, they found Sam on the floor, cackling his head off, holding his stomach, and pointing toward Declan’s dressing room.
“What on earth is going on?” Sahar asked.
Naomi shook with mirth, her phone camera aimed right at Sam.
“He…he…” Sam tried to explain but lost his words to another snort-laugh. Naomi stopped recording again.
Declan stepped out of his dressing room, revealing a gigantic split in the middle of his leather pants.
She could hear Ethan’s delicious laugh behind her and twisted back to see him standing over her shoulder.
