When I was done, I looked over at Elias and saw he was limply holding a piece of food in his eating hand as he stared at something in the distance. Of course these things affected him. Of course he felt frustrated. He just couldn’t show it. He had to swallow the words I was sure were trying to crawl out of his throat. Because if he got into something with Sam, he most likely wouldn’t win.

The rest of the afternoon was blessedly uneventful. After the awkwardness of lunch, everyone split off to go do the second part of the village visits, and by the time we got back to the hotel, dusty and exhausted, we all seemed to have shaken off the worst of the day.

As Elias pulled into the hotel, I heard his phone chime a few times with the sound that I recognized as his text messages notifications. I heard Yohannes and Abraham’s phones do the same. Mine was buried somewhere in my bag, so if it was a message from the Addis office, I’d just hear it from them.

It was Friday night and most of us had decided to stay in the field for the weekend instead of doing the five-hour drive to Addis and returning Sunday evening. I was running through the list of shows I’d downloaded on my computer, considering which one to watch after dinner, when Elias called my name. And like it happened whenever I heard the word coming from his lips, my chest lurched.

“What’s up?”

He was grinning and going between typing a message and looking at me. “Tsehay is organizing an outing. There’s a new place that has traditional dancing in town, and she was wondering if you wanted to come.”

I perked up at that, my Netflix downloads instantly forgotten. It’d been a long week and relaxing with a beer or two sounded amazing. “Sure, I’m in.” Then I thought better of it and wondered if Sam would get an invite too. I was not in the mood for his bullshit, though a chance to be with Elias for the evening was pretty damn appealing.

I must’ve been pulling a face, because a moment later I heard a small laugh coming from Elias’s side. “It’s just a few of the Habesha staff coming, and you.”

My mother always told me I would never win at poker. My feelings had a tendency to show up right on my face. So I was sure I was sporting a ridiculous grin when I nodded in answer to Elias. “I’m definitely down. What time?”

Elias looked back at the guys, who were about to jump out, and asked a question before turning to me. “There’s dinner there too, so maybe an hour?”

“See you then,” I said with a smile, and he answered with one just as radiant.