For some reason, the image of him watching a cartoon movie or something else equally adorable with his niece made me feel all mushy. For all I knew, she was twenty-five years old.
Desta: What are you watching?
I was text flirting now.
Elias: Tangled! LOL After last night I wanted to see it. She’s six, so it did not take a lot of convincing to get her to watch with me.
I was officially obsessed.
Desta: Are you trying to copy my smolder? Because I can tell you right now, it won’t work.
Elias: *wink emoji* I don’t need the smolder to get what I want.
Aaaand I now had an erection… Deep breaths.
Desta: Wow. Someone’s a little too sure of himself.
His response? The kiss emoji.
Desta: So, actually, I was wondering if you were up for coming to dinner with me and my friend.
Elias: Oh? Someone from Aid?
Desta: No, it’s my mom’s friend. It’ll be at her house, but I was telling her about you and she said I should invite you over. She’s making me a full Habesha feast, not sure if you’re up for it??
Elias: Unlike you, I can ALWAYS eat injera. *smiley face emoji* That sounds nice actually, my mom is going to my aunt’s with my sister and I was hoping to get out of having to go too.
My insides flipped over in excitement, which should have concerned me.
Desta: Excellent. We’re at the Marquis now but should be heading to her house soon. She lives in Jacros. I can give you more details once I get them from her.
Elias: I know Jacros, I am not too far actually. Just by Meganagna.
No clue where that was, but great.
Desta: I’ll text you specific directions soon. Does 7:30 work?
Elias: Eshi Desta. See you then. *smiley face*
Oh man, I was nauseous with excitement from a smiley face emoji. It was like I had lost all ability to control my fool head.
Chapter 14
By the time we got to Saba’s, I was questioning every decision of the last twenty-four hours. Right at the top of the list was packing holey jeans and a ten-year-old Cornell sweatshirt for my change of clothes. I looked like the token Latino frat bro at a kegger.
I tugged at the hem of my sweatshirt, utterly disgusted. “Why did I not bring something decent to wear?”
Saba looked up at me while opening a bottle of wine and smiled. “What are you so worried about? I thought you weren’t interested in this man.”
“Obviously I was lying, Saba!” I moaned, and flung myself on her couch. “You know I like him! Ugh, now you made me say it!”
She cackled and passed me a glass, patting me on the shoulder. I sipped morosely as I looked at the clock on the wall. Elias would be here any minute. I’d texted him instructions about thirty minutes ago, which was how long he said it would take him to drive over.
I heard a car pulling up to the gate of the house and saw Saba’s guard come out to open it. I quickly got up to look and saw Elias’s Corolla pull into the big gravel driveway. I went out to meet him while Saba sat on her couch, looking amused.
“Looks like your guest’s here.” She was having a little too much fun with this, but I didn’t have the bandwidth to come up with a snappy comeback. So I left my wine on her coffee table and went out to meet Elias.
He got out of the car with a bottle of wine in his hand, and once again took my breath away. This time he was wearing dark gray chinos and a bright red sweater, with a gray linen scarf around this neck. He looked like some sort of bohemian poet, and I wanted to kiss him so badly.
He walked up to the porch where I stood waiting for him, and we pressed our shoulders together in greeting. He pulled back and peered inside, but his expression changed to one of surprise when he saw Saba through the window. After a second, he shook himself and passed me the wine, eyes almost bulging out of his head. “You didn’t say your friend was Saba Aklilu!”
I looked over my shoulder, confused by how freaked out he sounded, but found Saba placidly sipping wine and doing something on her phone. “Oh, I guess I didn’t, but yes, that’s her. Do you know her?”
He looked at me as if I was out of my mind. “No, but I know of her! She’s a very well-known person in Ethiopia. She’s sort of one of my heroes, actually.” Well, that was interesting. “She’s been a fierce advocate for women’s and children’s rights for decades, and lately she’s been talking about LGBTQ rights too.” He had a look of complete awe on his face when he said that. “She’s fearless. I go to see her speak whenever she comes to the university.”
It didn’t occur to me Elias might have known Saba. I knew she was a well-respected figure here, but for me she was like an aunt. It was wild that he was this starstruck by her.
“Just say hello,” I told him with an encouraging smile, completely charmed by his shyness and excitement. “She’s looking forward to meeting you. I told her about your research.”
He gave me a panicked expression. “You did?”
I rolled my eyes because he was too freaking cute. “Yes, she thought it was really interesting.” I grabbed his hand and tried to pull him toward the door. “Come on, let’s go in.”
He didn’t move, and when I looked back he was giving me that intense look he did sometimes, his lips slightly turned up on the corners. My heart raced and I resisted moving closer while we were still outside. It was hard, though.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“How else could I look at you, konjo?” His tone was completely matter of fact.
He was going to kill me.
My thoughts must
