Page 5 of A Certain Step
WILLA
lmao I love you. I’ll send more photos of the bride and groom later.
SAHAR
Have so much fun, babe!
A part of her wanted to send the same photo to Ethan, but she couldn’t figure out if that would be weird or not. She could send him random things, sure. An old photo of her with her childhood dog where she’s grinning from ear to ear. Another one yesterday with her hair and makeup done dramatically by her nieces, Catherine and Lily.
Maybe she could post it on social media. Why did she even want Ethan to see it? Being away from him was odd. It was making her feel strange.
You hate social media. Why are you even questioning this?
She did it anyway. Willa opened the app and added the photo to her stories, captioning it with “time to get my big bro hitched.” Then, she posted it to the Close Friends circle she’d curated away from the public eye.
Walking down the stairs, Willa heard her immediate family’s chatter grow louder. While they weren’t having a traditionalArmenian wedding, Anna thought the detail of the groom’s family going to the bride’s house could be a lot of fun, so they were keeping that element sans zurna and drums blasting upon their entrance.
Willa looked around the room, and every single person—excluding her and the kids—was paired up. Emma was adjusting the flowers in Catherine’s hair, and Lily was having a very animated conversation about candy in her dad’s arms. Her parents were talking to her paternal aunt and uncle. Her youngest girl cousin, Maria, was giggling with her boyfriend, Andy.
Violet, her cousin Ben’s wife, was fixing his tie while quietly laughing about something he was saying. It was sweet seeing him like this, the quietest person she’d ever known, openly smiling and wholly in love with a woman who was just as in awe of him. He was a traitor, though. They’d joke often about being stuck together in the single’s zone, but then he had to go and reunite with the long-lost love of his life. She’d be selfishly furious with him if their story weren’t so adorable. Violet had also given birth to twins when she was forty-two, a boy and a girl. In truth, that detail gave Willa a bit of hope because despite people annoyingly telling her that her biological clock was ticking, she did, in fact, have plenty of time. At least, she hoped she would be as fortunate as they were.
She sighed. These were the moments when loneliness hit her the most, the fragments of time when she wished with everything in her that she could find someone, too.
Therapy next week was going to be a doozy.
Her phone vibrated at the exact moment her brother spoke. “Can we please not be stereotypical Armenians and get there late? Let’s go!” The Armenians rolled their eyes affectionately. The non-Armenians chuckled.
ETHAN
I just saw the photo you posted. You look so beautiful, Wills. Give your brother my love.
WILLA
Thank you ?? and I will! He’s cranky and eager to get to his girl.
ETHAN
I’ll bet. How are you feeling? Is anyone harassing you yet about making you their son’s next bride?
WILLA
Hahahaha we’re safe for now. Ask me in a few hours when we get to the venue.
ETHAN
Duly noted. I take my fake boyfriend from across the pond duties very seriously.
WILLA
Enormously grateful for you!
She placed her phone back into her cream clutch and averted her attention back to the chatter. Everyone was thankfully getting ready to leave the house, even though there’d likely be at least one more conversation in front of the door.
On the rideover to Anna’s family home, Willa spotted a treehouse and squealed openly in the car. Her dad laughed, knowing her obsession. So did her mum. Since she was a little girl, Willa had adored the idea of treehouses despite never even stepping foot in one. Their houses growing up weren’t big enough, and she’d never known anyone who had one either.
She didn’t often dream of a big house, but she always wishedfor a space that could hold a small treehouse, at least something she could maybe give future children and live vicariously through them.
Willa picked up her phone to text Ethan.
