Scarlett tapped the map. “You don’t have anything marked.”
“What do you mean?” Megan looked at the map, puzzled. “I highlighted the whole route.” She’d traced the entirety of I-95 with her yellow highlighter, up until they changed roads near the border with Canada, and then the rest of the path all the way to the Château Frontenac.
“You highlighted the main road, and that’s it. You said you wanted to make a bunch of stops, but you didn’t put stars on them or circle them or anything.” Scarlett stood the rest of the way up. “You think we’ll just take I-95 with no detours?”
Immediately on the defensive, Megan waved an arm across the table with a wild gesture. “You said you wanted to make this as simple as possible!”
“And you said you wanted to do a real road trip. Real road trips have stops.” Scarlett was still the picture of nonchalance. “I said we could do two hours in each direction of I-95. There’s got to be some places you want to go. Put some detours on there. No need to get all worked up about it.”
Megan was still flushed, and suddenly irritated as well. “I don’t know why you’re not worked up about this. I’ve done all this stuff to get ready. I bought a dress. I got the car tuned up so it would make the trip. I got all of these maps! All you’ve done is show up and criticize me.”
“You bought a dress?” Scarlett tipped her head to the side, a smile flirting with the corners of her mouth. “Can I see it?”
Megan’s skin got hot all over. “It’s just a dress. You’ll see it at the wedding.”
“Please?” Transformed, all her previous nitpicking disappeared, Scarlett folded her hands on the table and looked up at Megan with sparkling eyes. “I love dresses. I want to see what you’re wearing. I want to make sure you’re not wearing the same thing as me.”
“I somehow really doubt that.” Megan sighed. It was going to be easier to give in than to fight her. “Fine. You want to see it? I’ll show it to you.”
She led Scarlett into her bedroom.
“Jesus, you always keep your bedroom this clean when nobody’s seeing it?” Scarlett folded her arms and looked around.
Megan hadn’t thought of her bedroom as particularly clean. It was just a bedroom. But then Scarlett’s comment caught up to her. “Hey, who’s saying nobody’s seeing it?”
“Well, are they?” Scarlett’s eyebrow went up in irritating judgment.
Megan turned away toward the closet, her face still red. “None of your business.” It was none of her business because no, nobody was seeing it lately. She had been celibate for months now. But Scarlett didn’t need to know that.
The dress hung right in the middle of the closet, still in its plastic garment bag. She had not intended on buying something so pretty, so fancy, but this long lilac gown with dark purple lace overlay had spoken to her in a way no little black dress had. Pulling it out of the closet, she prepared for Scarlett’s judgey comments. “Here.” She put it out on the bed, laying it carefully but trying not to look like she was being really careful about it. If Scarlett knew how much she cared about her opinion, still, even after these years, she’d never live it down.
“Oh.” Scarlett stepped closer, and her expression was hard to read, so Megan braced herself. Then, finally, she said, “Megan, it’s beautiful. It’s going to look so pretty on you.”
Megan felt even weirder with the compliment than with an insult. “Thanks.”
Scarlett touched the fabric. “It’s really nice. This must have cost a fortune.”
“I got it on after-holiday sale last week. Those are still going on.” Megan hadn’t wanted to spend money on herself, especially not on something as frivolous as a dress she probably wouldn’t wear again, but she hadn’t been able to say no to this dress, especially with its reasonable price tag. “What about you? You get a dress yet?”
“I was thinking about maybe wearing...a suit?” Scarlett scrunched up her nose like she was considering. “There’s this gray velvet one I saw on sale, and I sometimes think that girls in suits are super hot, but usually that’s skinny girls, not, you know.” She gestured to herself, all those curves, and flushed. Oh. Was Scarlett embarrassed? How long had it been since Megan had seen Scarlett embarrassed? It brought out a weird desire to comfort her.
“A suit would look great. Maybe with some heels, or boots? And, like, a camisole.” Scarlett would look amazing like that, her curves filling out all the parts of the suit, and the feeling was kind of weird. She hadn’t thought about Scarlett like that since some confusing sleepovers in high school, long before she’d figured out what those feelings meant.
“You think?”
Megan busied herself with pulling the plastic bag back down over her purple dress and hanging it back in the closet. Anything that would prevent or distract her from this weird sensation. “Yeah. Yeah, I think so. It’s a good look. You look good in everything you wear.”
“Oh, come on.” Scarlett huffed out a laugh. “Quit making fun of me.”
Megan paused. Maybe Scarlett didn’t know she was gorgeous. “I’m not making fun of you. You look good in everything. It’s one of the things that annoys the hell out of me about you.”
There, now they were back to whatever bickering had become normal for them in this brief time of rekindling some kind of friendship. Scarlett rolled her eyes. “Sure. You got any ideas about this road trip, or not?”
“Of course I do.” Megan had nothing but ideas. She glanced at the scrapbook on her nightstand, the one that she’d been poring over most nights since her conversation with Scarlett.
Maybe she was staring at it for too long, because Scarlett snapped her fingers in front of Megan’s face. “Hey! Stop zoning out.”
“I wasn’t zoning out. I was thinking.” Megan snatched the scrapbook up off her nightstand. “I’ve got a scrapbook here of all the places I want to visit. I didn’t put anything on the map because I wasn’t sure you’d be up for going to any of them.”
“A scrapbook? Let me see.” Scarlett held out her hands, which made Megan clutch the scrapbook ever tighter.
“No. I’ll go through it.”
“Do you have naked pictures of yourself in that scrapbook?” Scarlett waggled her eyebrows, making Megan laugh despite herself.
Two could play at that game. “I keep my naked pictures on my computer like everybody else.” She pushed past a gobsmacked Scarlett, taking a bit of satisfaction from that look of shock, and headed back to the kitchen and the maps.
Scarlett trailed after her. “Wait. Seriously. Have you taken naked pictures of yourself?”