Page 24 of I Did Something Bad
“What?”
Tyler shrugs. “Better for the environment.”
“But aveganJames Bond?” I gasp-whisper. “PETA is going to have afield daywith that. They’re going to have a giant billboard of you cuddling bunnies in the middle of Times Square!”
“PETA is a racist and misogynistic organization and my team knows I will never work with them,” Tyler responds. After a beat, his eyes slide over to meet mine. “I would say you can quote me on that, but I should probably clear it with Bolu first. Just in case she needs to get a head start on the PR.”
“Too bad, pal,” I say, pursing my lips to the side. “No take-backs.”
He laughs, and for a split second, the sound grates over my skin in a simultaneously delicious and uncomfortable way. And then the next second, I’m slapping myself with an invisible ruler because that issounethical and also because I’ve remembered why Tyler came over in the first place.
“I—” I start.
He seems to remember, too, because, expression sobering, he mutters, “Take off an earring.”
“What?”
“Your earrings. They look expensive.”
“Theyare. They were my thirtieth birthday present to myself. I got them at this little boutique in Florence.”
“Good. Now take one off. Quickly.”
“But—”
“Khin,trust me.”
“I—”
“Once that last pillow is fluffed,” he inconspicuously points his chin toward the set, where people are starting to scamper off and May’s strolling back to her mark, “we’re screwed. Lose one earring. Now.”
I tilt my head down so that my hair falls over my left ear. Then, pretending like I’m scratching the back of my neck, I remove the backing from my rose-gold-encased sapphire earring and drop it in the back pocket of my purse.
“Good,” Tyler says. “Now gaspreallyloudly. Like you’ve just found outSVU’s been canceled.”
Unintentionally, Idogasp really loudly. I also jerk back and my face contorts with horror. “How dare—”
“What’s wrong?” Tyler asks, also loudly. He shifts to face me, and tucking his chin in so that his expression is hidden from view from the rest of the now-silent cast and crew, flicks his eyes at my left ear.
Oh,I mouth. “My earring!” I gasp, and feel around my lobe. “I lost my earring!”
“The family heirloom?” Tyler asks. His eyes are frantic as they start darting around at the floor.
“Huh?”
“The sapphire ones, right?” I’m lost, but Tyler’s act doesn’t falter, not even once. He looks up and widens his eyes. “Theirreplaceableones that your grandmother left you in her will? The ones thathold a lot of sentiment?”
“Oh!” Right. Yes. “Yes!” I say and, for some reason, drop to my knees like someone’s kicked them from behind. The move is so sudden that Tyler grabs my shoulder, looking genuinely concerned.
“You good?”
“Everything okay?” Yasmin has walked over, and so have May and Jason. Wonderful.
“I lost an earring,” I say, now half crawling in a circle around their feet, only giving them the view of the back of my head. My face is fixed firmly downward because the second they see it, they’re going to know something’s up. “It’s a round sapphire set in rose gold.”
“It was her grandmother’s,” I hear Tyler explain. “Who… inherited it fromhermother.”
I crouch lower, like I’m physically carrying the ever-increasing weight of our lies on my literal back.
