I stopped the book when he slowed and put on the blinkers, approaching a hotel we’d eaten at a few times already. I turned to him as I reached into my backpack to get my wallet.

“Are we waiting for the others?” I asked, making him glance at the side mirror. His mouth flattened at whatever he saw.

“Looks like Sam’s team is behind us. I think Tsehay’s is already here.”

I could not blame him for his lack of enthusiasm at the prospect of having to sit through another meal with Sam. In the past week, he’d gotten more and more insufferable. He was rude to everyone, and just this morning during a stop at one of the field clinics, he’d gotten in the face of one of our government liaisons. Bonnie’s prediction—that he would probably do something to embarrass the entire team—was on point after all.

I sighed wearily as I saw the Cruiser drive into the parking lot behind us, dreading the conversation I needed to have with him about his interaction with the official. “I’m not in the mood for Sam’s bullshit today. The way he talked to Mr. Dawit was not okay. That man is in his sixties; I can only imagine how offended he was when Sam all but said he was wasting the nutritional supplements.”

I was trying to keep my voice neutral. From seeing how people acted around Sam, it was clear just hearing his name was a trigger for some of the team. I turned around to look at Yohannes and Abraham, and they were both glaring at the man in question as he jumped out of the Cruiser in wraparound sunglasses, looking like the very picture of the clueless expat jackass.

I fished my own Wayfarers out of my front shirt pocket and looked at Elias, who was tapping a message on his phone. He still had not said a word about my Sam grievances. When he looked up he seemed sympathetic, but I suspected, like every other time I’d complained about Sam, Elias would take the diplomatic route.

He lifted his gaze from his phone, and after what seemed like a series of deep breaths, he finally spoke. “Tsehay’s team has a table for us upstairs,” he said with a tight smile. “And as for Sam, it’s taken the team here years to build the relationship with the woreda.”

I nodded at the word for district in Amharic, knowing how hard everyone had worked on that partnership with the government. “I know, I’m sorry. I’ll talk to him. I can talk to Mr. Dawit too.”

Elias’s back went up at that and I knew I’d said the wrong thing. Did he think I’d also been disrespectful to Mr. Dawit?