She pushed off the desk she’d been leaning on and offered me another warm smile. I could not say I was feeling unwelcome in Addis Ababa. “I need to get to a meeting, but I’ll be back before you leave. We’re so happy you’re here and can’t wait to put you to work.”
I laughed again as I dropped my backpack on the chair in my desk. “I’m glad to be here too.”
As Bonnie walked away, I found that I meant every word. I could say it had to do with Tefare and Bonnie being the only two people I’d interacted with so far. But it was more than that. I felt at home here in a way that I rarely felt anywhere.
Chapter 2
I woke up to another chilly Addis morning, and quickly realized I had overslept.
My ride would be here to pick me up in less than fifteen minutes, and of course I’d be a whole-ass mess when he got here. I jumped out of bed and got myself packed up for my trip. Since I’d barely taken anything out of the bag to begin with, I was done in a couple of minutes. I did a quick wash-up in the bathroom and was stepping out onto the guesthouse parking lot with my shoes in my hands when a white SUV pulled up next to me. The top of the truck was piled high with what looked like footlockers, which probably held supplies for the field offices and some of the materials we would need to run our survey. I smiled to myself at the familiar sight, which promised weeks of adventure and hard work.
When the driver jumped out of the vehicle and came around to my side, I finally got a good look at him.
He was not what I was expecting. For some reason, I’d envisioned Elias as some sort of Tefare doppelgänger. And why my stupid mind decided all Ethiopian men were seventy years old with Don King hair would remain a question for the ages.
No, Elias was beautiful.
He was very tall. Had at least five to six inches on me, and his movements were easy and fluid as he approached.
“Hi Mr. Walker, my name is Elias Fikru.” He smiled as he shook my hand, and all I could do was stare. “I’ll be driving you today and for the time you’re in the field.”
His eyes were a deep brown, like dark roasted coffee, and his smile was warm and friendly. I needed to look away. One thing I was very aware of was that same-sex relationships were still very much illegal in Ethiopia. I had researched before coming, and as far I could tell there didn’t appear to be outward violence like in other countries, but it certainly didn’t mean it was okay to make eyes at guys I was working with.
Checking out a colleague within thirty seconds of meeting him definitely did not qualify as proceeding with caution.
A colleague who would apparently be driving me for the whole trip. And because my caffeine-deprived brain was a hell of a liability, I opened my mouth without thinking. “I thought you were the logistics coordinator. Why are you driving me the whole time?”
He laughed, and I felt the ripples of it in a place that had no business waking up for this. “I’m used to driving in the areas we’ll be working in and I need to be there anyway, so I usually drive when the projects are in the south.”
I nodded dumbly at his perfectly reasonable explanation, and stretched my hand out with as much professional demeanor as I could manage. For someone who had his shoes in his hand and probably epic bed head. “That makes sense. Nice to meet you, Mr. Fikru. Please call me Desta, and thanks for getting me so early.”
He widened his eyes when he heard my name, which only twenty-four hours into my time in Ethiopia was beginning to feel like a compulsory reaction. My first name, Desta, means joy in Amharic, one of the official languages of Ethiopia. And my parents had given me “Joy” in English as a middle name to really hammer in that I would be a happy guy.
Once, when I asked him about my name, my dad told me when I was born, it was the only word he and my mom could think of. They’d been young and in love, with a new little person in their family, and were about to embark on another adventure, so I was double the joy.
My name had always been a source of infinite delight for any Ethiopian person I met, and it seemed like Elias would not be the exception.
“Very nice to meet you, Desta, and please call me Elias.” His face transformed as he gave me a bright smile. “Your name is Joy,” he said with genuine amazement in his voice.
I dipped my head, not sure how bubbly to be about this. “Yes, it is.” His eyes on me were doing things, so I decided to veer from anything that prompted hard staring. “I was told to look out for camels.”
He tipped his chin up in the direction of the road and lifted a hand, waving it back and forth. “Some pastoralist tribes do walk their animals around to find watering holes and pasture this time of year, so we may see camels on the road,” he assured me with another wide grin. “It’s quite a sight, long lines of them walking in perfect order.”
I nodded as he talked, excited for the idea. “That will be cool to see,” I said, tucking my shoes under my arm, ready to get on the road. That’s when Elias finally looked down at my feet and laughed, a deep, rough sound like his voice was still waking up.
He pointed at the ground by my feet.
