I smiled at Elias as I snapped some photos. “These churches are something.”

He nodded. “You’ll see many more when you’re in the north,” he said, mentioning my solo trip to see some of the historical sites. Just another reminder that our time was running out. As I looked up at him, I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to not see him again.

His eyes softened as if he could see into my thoughts. I could tell he was debating what to do, and in the end he squeezed my shoulder, his voice soft and warm when he finally spoke.

“There’s a lot more to see, konjo.”

Every time he called me that I still practically swooned. But I managed to hide it by snapping a few more pictures.

He ran a hand over my shoulder to get my attention, and his voice was a little amused when I looked up at him. “Let’s start walking. We’re not even four meters from the car, and you’ve taken a hundred photos.”

I smiled at his teasing and started walking. “Hey, it’s not my fault there are like, a million Insta moments happening right now.”

He just shook his head and smiled. I was looking forward to this day. Even though I’d been in the country almost two months, mostly I’d been in the south. I hadn’t seen much of Addis, and being here with Elias was perfect. He’d brought sandwiches, water, and packets of cookies so we could have a picnic after we got to the summit. I was feeling all of this a bit more than I should have, but I couldn’t help myself. He paid attention to everything.

On the very first trip to Awassa, I’d mentioned in passing I had a weakness for chocolate-covered digestive biscuits. Since then he made sure to always have some on hand. When I commented on it, he just brushed it off and said, “I pay attention to what you like.”

If and when it came to it, walking away from Elias was going to destroy me.

As we trekked up the mountain, we saw women carrying wood, which was a common sight all over Ethiopia. There was a large group of them and they each made their way down the mountain with massive piles of firewood on their backs, so big their torsos were almost perpendicular to the ground. I stopped to watch them as they hurried down the hill at an impressive clip, their eyes focused straight ahead.