Page 28 of A Certain Step
“Good. I’m tired of being cold. You heathens have had your time. Now it’s my turn to thrive,” Sahar countered, looking specifically at Willa.
Willa looked dumbfounded. “Give it a week, and you’ll start grumbling about it.”
“Not with the last winter we’ve had. I’m tired. Let me be happy.”
“If I hear you complain, so help me God,” Willa added.
“You won’t,” Sahar affirmed.
Willa turned to Ethan. “Weigh in, Everett.”
“You know I’m with her on this. I don’t like being cold. But fuck the heat. Give me whatever we’ve got going on right now, and I’m solid.”
“Ha!” Sahar bit back affectionately.
“He didn’t side with you, mate.”
Sahar stuck out her tongue. “Yes, but he didn’t side with you either.”
Willa turned to Ethan, then to Christian, and shook her head. “Look at the rift you’ve caused. We’re a house divided now.”
“And here I was making a random observation about the weather,” Christian remarked.
Ethan chuckled heartily, extending his arm out to set it around Willa’s shoulder. He brought her closer to him. “Could be worse. My sister’s husband is always cold, so their thermostat is perpetually set to seventy-seven degrees.”
Willa gasped dramatically. “Yeah, no, I’m pretty sure I’d die.”
They strode in companionable silence for a beat. Christian and Sahar went head-to-head on the weather some more. Willa looked up at Ethan, and he pulled her in tighter. It was tough not to want more of him during moments like this—too hard not to bask in the glow of how happy he looked.
Stop staring, Willa. Jesus. What’s wrong with you?
Ethan looked at her, not saying a word. He detected her staring and held onto her gaze. Somehow, she understood it—whatever he was trying to say. Any other person and she would’ve sunk into the ground from humiliation.
Maybe all of thiswasawkward. It should be.
The putrid smell of the subway station pulled her away from her thoughts. His spicy leather cologne left her senses far too soon. When had they reached the top of the stairs?
He turned to face her and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.Don’t fixate on the moment, Willa. He’s just being polite.
Ethan and Christian fist-bumped, and then he moved aside to hug Sahar quickly.
Ethan looked back at Willa again, a transitory glance but powerful in its hold. “Get home safe, you three,” he said.
See, he didn’t single you out. He was just being nice.With more and more crowds showing up when the show officially opened, she knew that Ethan would need to have a ride waiting for him instead of joining them at the station. He lived close to the theatre, so it was convenient, but public transportation after a while wouldn’t work.
Well, that thought upset her.
Willa shook away the feelings. She focused on her steps down the stairs. She threw herself into Christian and Sahar’s conversation, standing firm on her beliefs about hot weather.
Tomorrow would bring another exhilarating performance, another one after that, and another one after that. Willa had her best friends by her side despite very obviously crushing on one of them, but nothing would have to change.
It shouldn’t.
9
WILLA
Willa had just finished redoing her makeup and was prepping to curl her hair when she heard Sahar yell from the opposite side of their flat. “Willa, come help me decide what to wear, please!”
