Page 49 of A Certain Step
“Oof,” she noted, half joking, half something he couldn’t quite decipher. “Thoughts, Dina?” Willa asked.
Dina beamed. “I’m obsessed, and Team Miles on this one. He’s right.”
Miles grinned gleefully. “You have no idea how psyched I am to see this. Josie is going to flip out, too. I know she’d be so excited that you’re finally dancing in these numbers. Now, from the top, just the choreography, no singing yet. I want us to grasp the movements before we add the lyrics.”
Ethan and Willa positioned themselves, then she turned as if to walk away like Elizabeth was meant to. Ethan’s hand flew to hers, and he indicated for her to face him by tipping her chin with his other hand. They performed the start of the number rather successfully.
Miles continued to throw compliments left and right until they stopped right before the first kiss. Ethan’s glasses slid slightly down his nose, breaking the tension a bit.
“And perfect. We can hold the kiss since E’s in his glasses. Unless you want to take them off and try? But I think you should be good to work it intothe moment since it’s you two. Now, let’s finally take it back from the top with music.”
They resumed positions. Naomi was a tremendous singer, and she could hold a note in a way Ethan hadn’t seen in all the years he’d been doing this. She was one of the best scene partners he’d ever have vocally, butJesus—Willa’s voice sounded the way happiness felt. Soft and euphonious, filling his entire being with a melody he was sure he could feel in all two hundred and six of his bones. He could drown in it, listen to it for hours, just like her laugh. He had heard her sing before, but this was something else. This was magic.
Dina clapped heartily when they finished, stopping again right before the kiss. “I didn’t doubt either of you, I swear, but this last minute? I’m pretty sure my blood pressure skyrocketed at one point.”
Willa smiled, and Ethan did a small curtsy. “Would we ever let you down?” he said.
Dina shook her head. “Not ever. You’ve nailed the hardest bit once again, so take a beat, go get food, rest, whatever you guys need, and we’ll take on the remaining numbers when everyone shows up.”
Ethan faced Willa. “I’ll go out and get us food. What do you want?”
“Coffee,” she said.
“And?” he clarified, knowing something else was on her mind from the expression on her face.
She shut her eyes briefly. “Just coffee.”
“Wills, come on. You need food, so I want you to tell me before I get one of everything. Haven’t we been over this before?”
She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t have an appetite, but you’re right. I probably should eat something. Blueberry bagel, please.”
“That’s my girl. What’s Sahar’s order?” he asked.
She thought about it for a beat. “Take her with you. She and Jay get on well. I’m sure he’d like to see her.”
Ethan narrowed his eyes, questioning the small but riveting fact. Did Jay have a thing for Sahar? If so, he was certainly a better option than the clown she was currently dating, and though Ethan didn’t know much about Jay, he also seemed better than the assholes she’d previously dated. He obliged Willa’s idea, turning to Sahar, who was half asleep in the audience seats. The woman’s ability to fall asleep on any surface, comfortable or not, floored him. No pun intended.
“Sahar,” he called out.
She perked up and blinked, once, twice. “What, what’d I miss?”
“You and I are going to Amanda’s,” he stated.
She groaned sluggishly and pointed somewhere toward Willa’s vicinity. “Take her. I’m tired.” She seemed to be thinking something through, almost like it clicked in her brain that Willa was taking on the principal role tonight. “Alright, yeah, fine.”
16
WILLA
Willa stepped into her dressing room, took her water bottle, and gulped down the entire thing in one go.
She couldn’t believe that this wasn’t some sort of a fever dream. She couldn’t grasp the fact that she’d just rehearsed the show’s most emotionally and physically charged numbers with Ethan and that it’d felt completely different from any other time she’d danced with him.
It took all her might not to crumble from the ways Ethan had touched her. How would she get back on the stage and function after he kissed her?
Setting the bottle down, she steadied herself against the vanity’s edge. Willa thought of how he looked at her when he first entered the stage, eyes gentle and warm with belief shooting through the lenses of his tortoise-shell frames. She also hated him a little for wearing those bloody glasses because it made her weaker in the knees, but how was he supposed to know that? Maybe she could teasingly let him know.
Heavens, it was hot in here. She obsessively fanned herself with her hand, then reached for a notepad, which she hoped would add more wind.
