Page 28 of Hairpin Curves

“Right.” Megan climbed back into bed. She should probably say something, but didn’t know what to say. “I don’t care if you sleep naked. I was just surprised.”

Scarlett snorted. “Sure. You looked surprised. But don’t worry. I usually wear clothes to sleep. So you don’t have to look at my tits anymore.”

“Great.” Megan’s voice didn’t sound as excited about that as she’d hoped to sound. “I, uh, appreciate that.”

Scarlett made some quiet noise that Megan didn’t hear, and then silence fell between them. Megan scrunched down under the covers again, suddenly heavy with sleep. Across the aisle, Scarlett was rustling around, clearing up the trash from their pizza, and it was just so good to have a friend here. She could ignore whatever unwelcome other feelings for Scarlett were surfacing, and focus on friendship. Friendship was fine.

Chapter Seven

Maybe it was all the pizza, or the fact that she slept for basically twenty hours, but Scarlett awoke the next morning feeling amazing. After the initial uncertainties about where she was or what day it was, she blinked open and sat up, looking around at the room. The heavy motel curtains were still drawn across the windows, and she was about to get up and open them, but then she stopped. Megan was still asleep, curled up into a tiny ball beneath the covers, completely silent. Also, the alarm clock said it was only seven in the morning. Shit, when was the last time she’d been awake at seven when she hadn’t stayed awake the whole night before?

Megan could have her sleep. Scarlett felt refreshed and rejuvenated, and she wanted to get up. She took her time in the shower, enjoying the limitless hot water of a decent motel, and then got dressed in some comfortable clothes for traveling. Megan still slept on. She would let her sleep until at least nine, and then wake her up if she wasn’t awake by nine thirty.

In the meantime, though, Scarlett got some remote data entry work done, a bit of mindless number crunching that she could do without paying very much attention to it. The Wi-Fi was reliable, at least, and she set up at the round table with her aging laptop and slid the curtain open just enough to let some sunlight spill across her workspace. It was a pleasant place to work. Something about this whole thing seemed pleasantly domestic, with Megan dozing nearby, and Scarlett couldn’t let those feelings settle too deeply on her. Megan, after all, seemed to have maintained her irritation toward Scarlett, even if it was interrupted by brief, beautiful stretches of kindness or at least civility.

And then there was that whole thing with the nakedness. It wasn’t like Scarlett was a nudist, but she spent a lot of time walking around naked while she was doing laundry or just didn’t want to get dressed right away. None of her roommates had ever cared. Megan, though, reacted like she’d never seen a tit before.

Oh god. What if she’d never seen a tit before? Was that even possible? It couldn’t be. She had to have seen some PG-13 movies, right? Or a foreign film? Or maybe porn? Scarlett couldn’t picture Megan watching porn. Well, actually, she could picture it, could picture Megan’s little hitching breaths when she got turned on, the way she might furtively sneak a hand down into her pajamas, biting her lip at the indecency of it all...

Fuck. Scarlett shook herself out of that train of thought right that minute. Whatever feelings she’d had for Megan in the past, they were an adolescent crush, and Megan never returned her affection. Whether it was because Megan was straight (likely) or not interested in Scarlett (also likely), nothing had come of it, and then they’d stopped talking after Scarlett didn’t follow Megan to college.

She winced at that memory. Way to throw a bucket of cold water on any latent arousal. Remembering that time of her life brought up so many feelings she had decided to bottle them away, so she didn’t have to deal with them. When Megan hadn’t addressed the elephant in the room at the start of this trip, Scarlett had decided to ignore it as well. Megan didn’t need to know she hadn’t gone to a fancy private college the way Scarlett had told her, back when the lie seemed like the only way to save face. Megan didn’t need to know Scarlett had done a few semesters at community college before dropping out, that she’d never finished any degree at all. She didn’t need Megan’s pity, and she didn’t need Megan’s forgiveness.

Well. Maybe just her forgiveness would be nice.

Scarlett looked over at the sleeping figure in the other bed. If she had an easy way to talk to Megan, they probably could have cleared all this up years ago. At first, it had been self-preservation; she was embarrassed, and Megan was smart and competent and thought all her friends were the same. It was far easier to make up an acceptance at a fancy private college across the state rather than admit that she’d flunked all her placement tests and deal with Megan’s pity...or worse, Megan’s insistence that she persevere on a hopeless path. By the time Scarlett decided to come clean, after almost a full year of avoiding Megan on school breaks and letting her believe the lie, Megan wouldn’t return her calls, and this wasn’t the sort of confession you left on a voicemail. So Scarlett had given up. Told herself that Megan had always been a bit holier-than-thou, that some friendships weren’t worth saving. And when Megan had reached out, over two years later, Scarlett had been too proud to return the texts. She was leaving Florida, anyway, getting the hell out for New York, and she didn’t need anyone’s pity.

Scarlett sighed. These weren’t good memories.

But they were on this road trip together, with a thousand miles left to go. Maybe it was time to make amends. Megan had stepped out of her comfort zone for this trip, and she had a whole scrapbook of dreams she wanted to fulfill. Maybe Scarlett could help.

Jeremy wasn’t in the lobby when Scarlett showed up there, and only a “We’ll Be Right Back” sign gave a vague hint of his someday return. She poked through the wooden display of brochures for places to add to their trip. About ten minutes later, and after a stop at the car, she returned to the motel room with their road maps and all the brochures that seemed relevant. Megan still slept on, and Scarlett began hatching a plan.

By the time Megan woke up, Scarlett had given up on the motel brochures and moved onto internet searches. She knew what detour she wanted to add, but was having trouble pinning down the specifics.

Megan blinked sleepy eyes over at Scarlett. “What are you doing?” she asked, voice a bit slurred.

“I’m checking our route.” Scarlett leaned back in her chair. “Making some shifts where we need them.”

Rubbing her eye with the heel of one hand, Megan looked even younger than usual. “Why do we need shifts?” Megan asked.

“Just a few amendments.” Scarlett waved Megan away. “I already showered. You can have the bathroom.”

After her shower, Megan walked down to the beach to get some more photographs, leaving Scarlett alone in the motel room. She’d thought about joining her, but she’d had enough of a beach in the cold with Tybee Island the previous day—had that really just been yesterday?—and was happy to make a few calls and put the finishing touches on the next leg of their trip. By the time Megan returned, she was much more cheerful, her cheeks windblown from the cold. She’d also brought breakfast sandwiches back with her, which made Scarlett just as cheerful. After they ate, Megan took time to place two photos into the “Myrtle Beach” page of her scrapbook, pure satisfaction on her face. “Okay,” she announced at last, closing the scrapbook. “I’m ready to go.”

That enthusiasm waned once Megan got into the driver’s seat and saw the GPS Scarlett had already programmed. “What is this stop that’s six hours away? Where are we going?”

“Our first surprise stop.” Scarlett couldn’t hold back the beaming smile she gave Megan. “Let’s go!”

Megan was still frowning as she followed the GPS out onto the highway. “I don’t like surprises.”

“Of course you do.” Scarlett could remember plenty of surprises she’d thrown for Megan. “When we were younger, I surprised you all the time.”

Megan sighed. “I didn’t like them then, either.”

“What?” Scarlett shifted in her seat. “Not even when I bought you tickets for things? All those concerts and movies?”

Megan squirmed in her seat, both hands wrapped around the steering wheel. “I liked going to all those shows. I loved that. But I hated not knowing where we were going or what we were doing. I didn’t have any chance to get excited ahead of time. I would rather you just have told me.”