“It would’ve been nice to be warned that I could get ghee and salt in my bunna. I almost threw up in one of the families’ houses, Elias,” I lamented with my hands over my face, actually remembering the embarrassment. “It wasn’t even that it tasted bad, it was just so unexpected.”

I could hear that he was making an effort not to laugh, wheezing and rumbling coming from beside me. When I took my hands off my face, I found him grinning while he shook his head, clearly biting his tongue.

“Don’t laugh at me, Elias. I threw up in my mouth!” Keeping a straight face was out of the question at this point. It was just a matter of who burst out laughing first.

He clicked his tongue, obviously not wanting to be the one to break, but he was showing more teeth by the second. “Desta, I can’t leave you even for one day.” He was kidding, of course, playing along with the game I started, but his words pummeled me.

“I’m hopeless,” I conceded, when what I’d wanted to say was, I missed you. I felt your absence all day.

He must’ve seen something in my face, because the humor in his eyes changed to something more subdued, but in no way less warm. “You’re not hopeless.” The way he said it, low and earnest, like he needed me to believe it, was almost too much. The air around us shifted and I leaned toward him. For what, I wasn’t sure. I just needed to be closer.

I could see his throat working, like he was struggling with making words too. I opened my mouth to say something that could bring back the humor from before. But at that same moment the door to the room burst open and two servers arrived with the drinks and snacks I assumed Elias had pre-ordered.

I shook my head as they moved around, trying to get myself together, and Elias stood up so fast his phone bounced off the table. He dove to catch it and knocked over his chair, making the servers stop what they were doing to look in our direction. Elias told them something in Amharic that sounded self-deprecating, or maybe that was just me projecting. But he had lost his footing for a second there. Elias, who was always the very picture of cool, calm, and collected, had gotten flustered. I wasn’t enough of a fool to think that it was because he’d been affected by me, but I did need to remember to keep my boundaries in check.