It was an old ceramic crock, probably from the seventies or older. Beige with a brown lid and the word SOURDOUGH stamped across it. An old starter jar. He bought her this?

“I don’t know why I’ve never been in a thrift store before, but you have to see all the stuff I got for my apartment! It won’t be so bare anymore. And I love that the stuff has, you know, history. Personality.”

“You’re a trust fund kid. Of course you’ve never been to a thrift store.”

His expression was incredulous. “I am not a trust fund kid!”

“Did you have a trust fund?” she asked.

He frowned. “Technically … But anyway, I cleaned out the jar for you. Although now I wonder if it had decades’ old traces of sourdough in it. Personality, right?”

She smiled, letting her finger trace the letters on the crock. She wasn’t sure she’d ever received such a casually thoughtful gift.

“Thank you for this,” she said, putting the crock on the counter. “I’ve actually always wanted one of these. I still can’t see you in a thrift store, though.”

“I’ve been missing out. But new life, new Nadim. Shall we eat?”

“Yes, let’s.”

Nadim made up for her terrible mood by being especially chipper and charming. He called her “goddess” no less than three times over their khao soi and made a suggestive comment when she said she preferred tom kha gai to tom yum soup. He couldn’t have picked a worse time to be all rakish again.

“You’re quiet today,” he said, twirling egg noodles on his chopsticks. “Nervous about the video going live? It’s up in four days.”

She shrugged. She hadn’t really thought much about the video, to be honest. Unemployment and the unearthed dirt about her fake fiancé was actually a pretty good distraction from stage fright. She should tell Hollywood.

“No. Not really nervous.”

“Worried about your parents finding out what we’re up to?”

She shrugged. Their finding out about her job and the yacht would be worse. “Nah. I mean, I’m not telling them, but they’re the ones who want us engaged, so what’s the big deal if we tell a national TV station that we are?”

“Then what’s bothering you, Ree?”

“Just a rough day.”

“Did you leave work early? That pie was warm.”

Crap. Of course, he noticed the pie was fresh. Ugh …she felt like an idiot.

She considered telling him the pie came from her freezer, when she sank in her seat. She planned this whole evening to get some honesty out of him. She couldn’t start by lying. He bought her a starter jar, for god’s sake. He deserved the truth.

“If I tell you something, can I trust you not to tell my parents? Actually, not to tell anyone. At all. No one knows this, except Amira and Saira.”

“Of course. You know you can trust me. What’s wrong?”

Could trust him? The man on the gold yacht? She took a long breath. “I didn’t go to work today. I was laid off two weeks ago.”