Page 48 of Hairpin Curves

“Can we go to a sex shop?”

Scarlett stared. Megan was going to keep surprising her, wasn’t she? Scarlett regrouped quickly. “You want to go to a sex shop.”

“Yeah. It’s New York. There are some good ones.” Megan shrugged. “Unless it makes you uncomfortable.”

“No, I just...it’s not something I’ve ever done.”

“What?” Now it was Megan’s turn to look shocked. “Really?”

“I don’t have any of that.” Well, that wasn’t entirely true. “An old girlfriend of mine got me a toy once, but I didn’t really like it.” Somehow, Scarlett felt embarrassed admitting that. How the tables had turned.

Megan’s mouth fell open. “You’re missing out. Oh my god. We’ve got to go now. There’s a really well-respected one down in Soho, from what I read. Maybe we can go there at some point today?”

If Megan was going to take her to a sex shop, there was no way Scarlett would say no.

Megan was an eager audience to all of Scarlett’s New York facts and figures, some of which she was pretty sure she was getting wrong, but Megan listened attentively anyway and didn’t question her. By the time they got onto the ferry, Scarlett was happy to sit down, and Megan was still bright-eyed and excited. When they got within view of the Statue of Liberty, Megan raced out onto the freezing cold deck to take a photo, leaving Scarlett in the warm interior of the ferry without dragging her along. Megan was happy, and Scarlett was getting addicted to seeing Megan happy.

“Do you know,” Megan said, coming back in from the cold red-cheeked and windblown, “that this is the first ferry ride I’ve ever taken?”

“Another first.” Scarlett stretched her arm out along the back of the hard plastic seats.

They watched the tiny photograph develop, the statue resolving from a blur to a crisper-edged figure against a light blue sky. From this close, Scarlett could smell the clean scent of Megan’s hair, and she leaned in a bit to inhale more.

Fuck, she was in trouble.

Getting taken to a New York sex shop by Megan wasn’t as much of a distraction from her attraction as Scarlett had hoped. The brightly colored toys on nearly every surface didn’t seem to faze her a bit. She left Scarlett standing in the middle of the large, well-lit space and wandered over to the wall to turn on one of the display models of something, holding it with easy familiarity.

Scarlett made her way to Megan’s side after assuring one of the friendly salespeople that she was fine and no, did not need any help.

“But you probably do need help, right?” Megan watched the clerk walk away. “Why’d you send them away?”

“I don’t know if I need help. And I don’t really want to answer questions.” Scarlett thrust her hands into her pockets.

Megan looked her up and down and gave a cheeky smile. “Are you shy? Is this making you uncomfortable?”

“No.” Scarlett emphasized the word. “I told you, I just haven’t done something like this before. And what about you? What stores like this have you been going into in Florida?”

Megan set down the vibrator she was holding and moved on to a medium-sized dildo, which she turned over in her hand absent-mindedly. “There was this shop near the college that I went to a few times when I didn’t want to deal with mail order. Nothing as nice as this, though.” She happily surveyed the space around them like it was a damn flower shop, still holding the dildo. “So what do you want to get?”

“I don’t need anything.” Scarlett still had her hands in her pockets.

“Come on. You’ve gotta get something, right? This is the best sex shop you’re going to see in a while.” Megan set the dildo back down on its plinth. “You want a recommendation?”

Scarlett’s face was already warm and growing warmer. What the hell. “Sure. Hit me.”

Megan smirked, turning purposefully toward a display of paddles. “You sure?”

Scarlett winced. “Okay, poor choice of words.”

Megan smiled, tapping her lips with one fingertip, and then immediately led her over to a display at the end of the wall. “One of these.” She waved her hand at the display. “They all do kind of the same thing.”

Scarlett picked one up and frowned, turning it over in her hand. There was a small round silicone nozzle at one end of the oval-shaped plastic body. “What do you do with this?”

“It sucks your clit.”

Scarlett raised her eyebrows. “What?”

“Yeah. This nozzle right here, it fits over your clit. And then it sucks it. I mean, it blows air over it. Sort of feels the same.” Megan was grinning, clearly enjoying every minute of this. “Life changing.”