Page 23 of I Did Something Bad
“Ah.” Tyler nods.
“Yep,” I say.
“I know this oneprettywell.” Jason nudges my shoulder with his. “I miss you! It feels like it’s been ages since we last saw each other.”
It’smyturn to draw my smile into something civil. “I missed you, too.” A part of me means it, but this is the first time I’ve seen Jason since he helped Ben pack up his stuff, and I really don’t want to be doing this here right now. I’m never a fan of putting my personal life on display for people to gawk at and probe, but I’mespeciallynot into doing it in front of a film crew, each of whom undoubtedly knows someone who knows someone who knows about my and Ben’s divorce. Funny how cities are always big, except for when you need them to be.
“She’d even tag along to our shoots sometimes,” Jason continues, addressing Tyler.
“Shoots?” Tyler raises a brow.
“Ben was a photographer.Is.He’s a photographer,” I explain.
“Sorry, I thought you knew,” Jason says, oblivious to my dagger eyes. “My brother and I often overlap on shoots. And it’d always be a blast whenever Khin showed up. We always talked about doing a story together, the three of us, and then—” When he looks back at me this time, I know there’s nothing subtle about the way I’m flashing my teeth via my most menacing smile (but a smile nonetheless!).
“I mean—” he starts.
“Jason!” May calls out. She’s holding a coffee flask in her hands.“Do you mind redoing my lipstick? Sorry, this latte was speaking to me.”
“Coming!” Jason yells and sprints over.
Before I can make any small talk, Tyler takes a half step closer. “They want to talk to us,” he murmurs.
“What?”
“The police. They want to talk to us after this scene,” he says, body language cloaked in normalcy, like we’re chitchatting while crew members re-angle the paintings on the walls. “Immediately after.”
“You have to stall them. Throw a tantrum.”
“Over what?”
“I dunno, actor stuff!” I hiss. “Maybe you don’t like your outfit.”
A sound comes out of his chest but it’s muffled by him pressing his lips shut. I think it was meant to be a laugh but it translates into a low rumble. “You don’t think it’ll be suspicious if Istallthe police? Police who are asking to speak to people about a murder investigation?”
“You’re the star of the show,” I say, contorting my mouth into a taut smile. “If you can get an assortment of sorbets stocked in your trailer, I’m sure you can figure this out. Whatisthat about, by the way?”
“How do you know about the sorbets?”
“I checked out your rider.”
“You mean you snooped.”
“I’m a journalist.”
“Snoop.”
He’s technically right, but I’m not admitting that. “You’re missing the point,” I mutter, and crack my neck. “You need to stall so that we can coordinate our stories. Or else they might hear a discrepancy and get suspicious and press and one of us will crack.”
Out of the corner of my eye—because for some reason, we’restill not looking at each other—I see his shoulders shake lightly with a silent laugh. “Khin, I lie for a living, remember?I’mnot going to crack,” he says. My eyes trail up to his face which, at last, turns to me. “Areyou?”
I scrunch up my own face in offense. “I wouldn’t crack if my life depended on it.”
He lifts a brow. “Didn’t you just have a meltdown in my trailer?” His tone is teasing, and instead of being mean or accusatory, the question comes out like a friendly jab, like the kind Thidar or Nay would give me.
“Nope, you must have the wrong person,” I reply with a sneer. His soft smile wrinkles the corners of his eyes, and in a short glitch, my heart goes light and jittery in my chest. “Why the sorbets?” I counter, breaking eye contact and peering over at May, whose hair team is spritzing her with three different sprays.
“I’m trying to go vegan.”
