But she slid a blonde Barbie into my hand. “You be my best friend. We’re going shopping for dresses before the ball tonight.”
“How about I be Ken and tell Barbie what she looks good in?”
“Uncle Matt, Ken can’t see me in my dress before the ball. And his name is Axel, not Ken.”
“Axel, huh?” Axel was our friend Tyler’s son. It drove James crazy that Scarlett had a crush on Axel. But I actually found it quite entertaining. The two of them were adorable together.
“Yes. Axel is my boyfriend.”
“Whatever you say, kiddo.”
“I do say. We’re going to get married and have ten babies and live happily ever after.”
“I bet you will.”
She nodded with a smile. “You try this dress on.” She handed me a big, poofy dress in a hideous pink color. While she started changing her redheaded Barbie into a tight-fitting blue dress.
“This is the one you want your friend to wear?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“It’s a lot of material.”
“Yeah, it’s my least favorite.”
“Then why did you give it to your friend?”
Scarlett looked up at me. “So she looks terrible.”
“You want me to look terrible?”
She giggled. “You’re not wearing the dress, Uncle Matt.”
I know that. “Why would you want your friend to look bad though? Shouldn’t she look good at the ball too?”
“No.”
I stared at her.
“I have to look the best so Axel loves me.”
“Scarlett, why do you think that?”
She pressed her lips together.
“Last time Axel was here he said my pigtails were silly. And Sophie didn’t have pigtails. So I think he likes her better now.”
I tried not to smile. I’d seen Scarlett put pigtails in her own hair. And they did look silly. Because she always did them quite lopsided. I wasn’t sure why she didn’t want her mother’s help with her hair. But whenever she did pigtails she insisted on doing them all by herself.
“You know what I think?” I asked.
She shook her head.
“That you don’t have to change a single thing about yourself for a boy to like you, okay? Never.”
She scrunched her mouth to the side. “I still want to wear the blue dress. And you wear the ugly one. Please, Uncle Matt?”
I smiled. How could I say no to her when she said please? “Okay. I’ll wear the ugly dress.” I quickly changed my Barbie into the poofy number.
