She entered her room in one continuous swift motion, and before the door had time to close, she had undone the top two buttons of her blouse and was halfway to the bathroom. Spotting Shawn, she pulled herself up short as he leaped to his feet. They eyed each other. Sana was the first to speak as she took in a magnifying glass in Shawn’s white cotton-gloved hands. “What are you doing here? Why aren’t you out at the pool?”

“You could have knocked!”

“I need to knock on my own hotel room’s door?” she questioned in a mildly sarcastic tone.

Shawn chuckled, recognizing the unreasonableness of what he’d said. “I suppose that does sound a bit unrealistic. At least you didn’t have to come barging in here like there was a fire, scaring me out of my wits. I was concentrating.”

“Why aren’t you at the pool?” Sana repeated. The door slammed on its own behind her. “It’s our last day, if you haven’t forgotten.”

“I haven’t forgotten,” Shawn said, a gleam coming into his eye. “I’ve been busy.”

“So I see,” Sana said, eyeing the gloves and the magnifying glass. She went back to unbuttoning her blouse and headed into the bathroom. Shawn came to the threshold.

“I just made what I thought was my biggest archaeological find in that antiquities shop I told you about. The one where I got the prehistoric Egyptian pot.”

“Excuse me,” Sana said, easing Shawn back from the threshold so she could push the door almost closed. She didn’t like to change in front of anyone, even Shawn, especially since their level of intimacy had faded of late. “I remember,” she called out. “Does it have something to do with your white gloves and the magnifying glass?”

“It certainly does,” Shawn said to the door. “The concierge helped me out with the gloves and the magnifying glass. Talk about your full-service hotel!”

“Are you going to tell me about your find, or do I have to guess?” Sana asked, now interested. When it came to his profession, Shawn didn’t exaggerate. For sure, he’d made a number of important finds digging in multiple locations throughout the Near East earlier in his career. That was before becoming a high-ranking curator whose responsibilities had devolved to be more supervisory and fund-raising than fieldwork.

“Come out, and I’ll show you.”

“Is it not as good as you hoped? I noticed you used the past tense.”

“At first I was disappointed, but now I think it is even a hundred times better than my initial impression.”

“Really?” Sana questioned. With her bathing-suit bottoms halfway up her thighs, she stopped. Now her curiosity had truly been piqued. What could Shawn possibly have found to warrant such a description?

“Are you coming out? I’m dying to show you this.”

Sana wiggled her bottom into the suit and adjusted the crotch, then checked herself in the full-length mirror on the back of the bathroom door. She was reasonably happy with what she saw. A devoted runner, she had a slim, athletic figure and short, dirty-blond but healthy hair. Gathering up her clothes, she opened the door. Depositing the clothes carefully on the bed, she walked to the desk.