“In fact,” she continued, as if I hadn’t spoken, “we have a perfect group for this ceremony—someone to represent each aspect of the goddess. Amelia is the maiden, Scarlett, you’re the mother, and I’m here as the crone.” She smiled brightly, obviously pleased with herself as she passed Amelia a candle.
I looked over at the small statue of a goddess and made a silent prayer to her that Finn would come home early from his date. Otherwise, this was going to be a new level of awkward.
Scarlett
Five hours later and Finn wasn’t home. The ceremony was long since over and I’d survived. Well, I’d survived physically. My dignity hadn’t taken a hit that big since I’d moved away from home.
Since Amelia had gone to bed, I’d been working on Finn’s birthday painting. I probably should have gone to bed as well, but I’d been too busy pretending not to care that he was on a date. Probably kissing her with all those mad kissing skills he had. Maybe somewhere dimly lit. Maybe somewhere romantic with music playing. Touching her hair…
I took off my apron, scrunched it up and threw it on the floor. It didn’t have enough weight to make a satisfying sound when it landed. My brushes, on the other hand…
I sank to the floor, disgusted that I’d considered harming my new brushes—the ones Finn had bought me for my birthday a couple of months ago.
If I was going to date, then Finn had every right to date as well. I just wished it had been on a night when I’d had a date, too, so I wasn’t stuck home thinking about it. I covered my face with my hands.
Finn’s car pulled into our driveway and I crept over to the attic window, hoping to see a vacant passenger seat. Unfortunately, I caught sight of a person-shaped outline sitting there, then an actual person opened the passenger door and waited for Finn to come around.
Should I go down and greet them, or hide out up here and pretend it wasn’t happening? Eventually, curiosity got the better of me and I made my way down the stairs to meet the girl who had possibly kissed Finn.
“Hey, Scarlett,” Finn said when he saw me. “Marnie, this is Scarlett, my roommate.”
Marnie looked me up and down then plastered a big smile on her face. “Nice to meet you, Scarlett! Finn has told me so much about you.”
Once Finn’s dates found out his roommate was female and his best friend, they usually fell into one of two camps. The first group resented me and tried to cut me out, but they usually didn’t last after they realized he was serious when he said I was a non-negotiable in his life.
The second group offered me fake friendship to get brownie points with Finn, or to get inside information on him, or whatever crazy-ass reason they had.
It seemed that Marnie belonged in camp number two.
I smiled back. “Nice to meet you, too, Marnie. You here for a nightcap? Appletini, perhaps?”
Finn scowled at me. “She’s going to see if she can play my flute.”
“That’s not a euphemism, is it?” I batted my eyelashes innocently at them both.
“No, Scarlett,” he said, his voice exasperated. “It’s not. Marnie plays the flute in an orchestra and offered to look at the reed flute I’ve been making.”
“Oh, good. Just wanted to make sure we’re on the same page. In case, you know, you wanted me to turn the music up loud.”
Finn’s eyes looked pained as he shook his head. “Marnie, I’ll just grab the flute.”
Marnie turned to me. “Finn tells me you’re an artist.”
“Does he?”
“I’d love to see one of your paintings.”
“Sure. Come on,” I said, and headed down the hall. The obvious thing was to take her to my painting room—it was where most of my work was, and was dedicated to my art. But it was my sacred space. The only person I allowed in that room was Finn, and that was mainly because it was his house. I certainly wasn’t taking Fake Friend Marnie in there.
So I showed her into Finn’s bedroom instead.
Maybe there was a slight hope that she’d be horrified by the teddy bear theme, but I was really just doing what she’d asked—showing her some of my paintings.
I switched the light on and waved an arm around his room.
She frowned. “Is this Finn’s room?”
It wasn’t hard to work out—there were man-clothes all over the place, a tie over the back of a chair, and a can of masculine deodorant on his bedside table.
“Yep,” I said. “Those teddy bear paintings are mine.”
She looked at me curiously. “He’s got your paintings all over his bedroom wall?”
I shrugged. “Well, they were birthday and Christmas presents, so they’re actually all his. I just meant I’d painted them.”
“And he hung them around his bed?” She arched an eyebrow.
Unsure what she meant, I frowned. They were his paintings and this was his room. What was wrong with that?
Before I could reply, Finn appeared behind us in the hallway.
“Scarlett,” he said with a warning in his voice. “What are you doing?”
“Marnie said she wanted to see some of my paintings.”
“So you took her into my bedroom?” he asked, incredulous.
Yeah, well, I could see now that it hadn’t been my best idea, but hindsight was twenty-twenty.
“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” I said lamely.
Drawing in a controlled breath, he turned to Marnie. “I’ve found the flute. How about we look at it in the living room?” He looked pointedly at me.
“Right,” I said, straightening. “Sorry to bail on you, but I really have to… do… a thing. In my room. Finn, I’ll see you in the morning. Marnie, nice to meet you.”
Once in my room, I closed my door, put my earbuds in, and hit play on my favorite playlist. Then I turned the volume up, so I didn’t accidentally overhear Marnie playing Finn’s flute.
Chapter Seven
Finn
As I walked through the front door of Scarlett’s work, she saw me and waved, though I could tell she was surprised.
“Hey,” I said as I approached the reception desk. “I’ve come to take you out to lunch.”
She checked her watch. “Good timing. My break is in about two minutes.”
I hadn’t taken her to lunch in ages—it seemed pointless when we lived at the same house and ate one or two meals a day together—but it was something I used to often do, before she’d moved in. And now there was a teenage girl down the hall and a pair of hippies camping in the backyard, I was resorting to old routines to spend time with her.
“I’ll wait outside,” I said with a wave.
I’d only just unlocked the car when Scarlett came out through the doors and flashed me a smile. “Andrea said she’d cover for me since it was only a couple of minutes. Where are we going?”
“Indian?”
“Perfect.”
Our favorite Indian place was only a couple of blocks away, so it wasn’t long before we’d arrived and were seated. Neither of us needed to check the menu, since we pretty much knew it by heart, so we ordered at the same time we were shown to the table, and then another waitress brought us a jug of water.
“So,” Scarlett said, fixing her gaze on me. “Any special reason for this visit?”
I raised an eyebrow. “You’re complaining?”
“Nope,” she said quickly. “Kofta balls beat a salad sandwich any day of the week, but still, I can’t remember the last time we did this.”
I shrugged. “It’s to say thank you.”
“For what?”
“For what you’ve done for Amelia.” That meant more to me than anything. “Coming with me to get her, the extra attention you’ve been giving her, the birds and the bees talk. I really appreciate it.”
“Finn,” she said, her voice serious, “I would have done any of those things for you, but to be honest, I did them all for her. She’s a good kid.”
I raised my water glass to her. “I’m thanking you anyway.”
“You seem a little tense,” she said, far too perceptive, as usual. “In fact, you’ve been pretty tense since Amelia came home. Are you okay with the arrangement?”