I tightened my arms around his neck and groaned. “I don’t want to move, and I really don’t want to go listen to Sam droning on about how amazing he is.”

Elias laughed and squeezed me hard. “I know, but now that we’re roommates, the faster we get done with dinner, the faster we can come back, and I can show you how Ethiopians make up.”

That perked me up fast, and soon I was out of the bed and rifling through my bag for my shaving kit.

Elias just looked at me, amused. “Finally, Bonnie’s utter inability to make a proper reservation has reaped some benefits.”

Chapter 23

Once Elias and I sorted things out, it was like a fog had been lifted. We worked hard on that second survey, taking only a couple of days off the entire time. During the day we crisscrossed southern Ethiopia gathering data, and in the evenings, Elias and I slept in each other’s arms as if we’d been doing it for years. Now we were on our way back to Addis, and my time in Ethiopia felt like it was slipping through my fingers.

After almost two months I was down to my last ten days, which I would use to work on cleaning up the data we’d gathered, and then I was taking some time to travel around. We’d discussed Elias coming with me, but he had a lot to work out for his departure to the States, which included coming out to his family. He didn’t have much time to do it, either. His advisor at Columbia had requested he arrive early so he could assist with a seminar over the summer. Elias had to be in New York City in six weeks at the latest.

As for me, I still had no idea what I was going to do. We hadn’t talked about it explicitly, but given the conversations of the past few weeks, it was clear that we were both focusing on our separate plans and not wanting to write anything in stone when it came to us. It wasn’t for lack of wanting, though. I was itching to say reckless shit, tell him I loved him, that even if I ended up going back to DC, I still wanted to try to be together, but I didn’t want to muddy the already-complicated waters of his departure with my neediness.

“Konjo.” Elias’s soft voice brought me out of my thoughts, and I looked out the window to realize we were almost at my guesthouse. “What were you thinking? You looked very serious.”