Sam pulled up a chair and slumped into it like the petulant asshole he was, scoffing at my words. “Whatever, man.”
He was such a jerk.
I turned my attention to the conversation happening on my right side and proceeded to ignore Sam, who was in the midst of asking his usual thousand questions to the server. Every meal required at least two bouts with an interpreter because he had to ask about every ingredient the food was made with, and had various specifications. I got that sometimes people had food allergies or special diets, but he didn’t have to be so fucking rude.
I was blessedly distracted by Tsehay, who brought her head closer to mine to ask a question. “How did it go this morning? Other than the clinic.” The when Sam acted like a jerk and almost got us in trouble with the town officials was implied.
I nodded as I took a drink from my Ambo/Coca. “It went well. I was impressed by the clinic staff—they are doing really great work with the families. I like that they’re doing some counseling with the mothers too.”
Tsehay smiled at my comment. “They do a nice job there, and it’s our biggest one in the program. They see almost five thousand families a month.”
I whistled at the impressive number. It was a huge setup, with nearly a few dozen workers.
Soon we were talking data, and when our food came everyone tucked in, hungry after a long morning in the field. I was so distracted enjoying my delicious lunch that I didn’t notice the situation happening at a table on the other side of the terrace—until I saw Elias push his chair back loudly to walk over there.
Tsehay uttered what I suspected was a curse word in Amharic as we both turned our heads, looking to where Sam was seemingly having an argument with two men who had been in the middle of their meal.
“What the fuck?” was all I could say. I leaned to take a closer look as Elias rushed over. When I finally realized who the man was, I groaned, hoping this didn’t end up a complete disaster. When I turned my head to look at Tsehay, I saw she was also watching the unfolding scene with a horrified expression.
“Please tell me Sam didn’t interrupt Mr. Dawit’s lunch to pick a fight,” I said, doing my best to keep my voice down.
Tsehay sighed as she got up. I stood as well, deciding they might need reinforcements. There would have to be some damage control, that I was certain of. This man oversaw all the supplements and food delivery the clinics got. It was not a relationship we could afford to lose.
What was Sam thinking?
“Sam, what are you doing?” I was almost proud of myself for managing to get that out without a string of expletives.
Meanwhile, I noticed Elias quietly speaking with the other gentleman at the table as Mr. Dawit sat there, a bite of his lunch still in one of his hands. He looked annoyed and completely put off by Sam’s presence.
“What do you mean, what am I doing?” the asshat in question asked me, his hands crossed over his chest. “I was just following up about the clinic. I wanted a straight answer about who oversees the distribution of supplements on the government end.”
And he thought interrupting the man while he was eating lunch and yelling at him in a crowded restaurant was the way to do that?
I looked over at Elias and Tsehay, who were now tag teaming the table, and got closer to Sam, figuring I’d heed Elias’s words and deal with the American while they cleaned up the mess Sam had made. “This is not how you approach these things. You’ve been doing this work long enough to know that being aggressive and overly direct is not the way to go. You’re being rude,” I said as quietly as I could. I was pretty sure both of the men at the table spoke English.
Thankfully, something of what I said must have landed, because Sam moved away from the table and stood with me to the side. I smiled and lifted a hand to the men at the table, and gestured for Sam to follow me to where our team was witnessing the whole sordid scene.
When we finally sat down, it seemed Sam had realized that he’d completely mishandled the situation. “I just need this guy to tell me when he’s going talk to us.”
“Now is not the time,” I bit off, still watching Elias and Tsehay, who were now bumping shoulders with the officials and nodding at whatever they were being told. After a moment they walked off, heading back to our table, leaving the two men to their now almost certainly cold lunch.
Sam looked like he was about to argue some more when Elias and Tsehay came back to the table. As they sat down, I leaned over to Elias and said, “Thanks for helping with that.”
He gave me a tight smile and turned to Sam. “He said we can come to the office next week.” He cleared his throat, as if unsure how to deliver the next part of the update. He didn’t shy away from Sam, though—he looked at him straight in the eyes when he spoke. “He asked that either Tsehay or Desta attend the meeting, though.”
Sam immediately got red in the face, his expression turning cold. “Who told you to get involved in this?”
I sucked in a breath at the callousness in Sam’s tone. His words clearly implied that Elias, being a lowly logistics coordinator, had no business talking on our behalf. Even though so far this week, Elias had made sure things ran smoothly in every way possible. Not to mention that if he had not
