Page 12 of A Discovery: Love and Other Things
“You don’t exactly leave us with much free time after work.”
That caught his attention and he stared at me, perplexed. “What do you mean? We pack up and leave at sunset. You have the evening to do errands.”
I choked on my laugh. He had to have been kidding. Not even he could be such a workaholic. The sun set at damn near 7 p.m., then it took almost an hour to drive back to the hostel. Whatever little time we got to ourselves, we used to eat and sleep.
“Why is that funny?” His expression remained flat as he rested his hands on my foot, which felt too intimate for our relationship as professor and student. Had I known someone would be up close and personal with my feet like this, I would have taken some time to get a pedicure before I’d flown here.
“It takes us nearly forty-five minutes to drive back to the hostel. And by the time we reach home, we barely have enough energy to eat and shower.”
“It shouldn’t be surprising that archaeology is hard work,” he replied sternly. He began wrapping the bandage tightly around my ankle. Those damn cords in his tanned forearms flexed as he worked. “I outlined what this internship would involve.”
It was obvious that he had forgotten what it was like being a student just starting out. I let out a sigh. “We’re all certainly excited for this opportunity, but for most of us, this is the first time we’ve ever been on-site. This experience is new to us, and we’re all trying our best.”
His head reared up from my injury. Blue eyes blazed. “Are you telling me how to mentor my students?” His voice rumbled, like rage was just about to bubble over.
“What? No!” I tried desperately to smooth the situation over. “I just meant that we’re all working really hard.”
Dr. Campbell’s hands jerked angrily as he quickly finished wrapping my ankle. He rose suddenly, and my foot dropped like an overripe coconut. He towered over me as I looked up at him from the ground. “If you want to get anywhere in life, you have to work. You might be used to a life of privilege where you come from, but look around you. This isn’t sunny California where you can just clock in and out before lounging by the pool. This is the desert. There is no time to play out here, unless you’re looking to join the dead bodies under the sand. I didn’t get where I am today by being lazy and complaining about my schedule to my mentor. Handle your business on your own time like an adult without whining.” He glared down his nose at me.
Heat pulsed through my cheeks and blood roared in my ears. I had never felt myself get this angry before. In fact, I’d always been known as the one who could remain calm under stress. But I was done—done with his judgment and condescension. I was done with being treated like his personal assistant.
My hands felt along the ground to find the balance to push myself up onto my good foot. He was still nearly a foot taller than me when I was standing, but I wasn’t scared of him and his tongue-lashing. “If you’re going to make assumptions about me, then I get to make them about you, mentor or not.”
My voice had come out louder than I’d expected; I might as well have been shouting in his face. I was certain the entire work crew was standing by, listening to every bit of our exchange. “You’re an arrogant prick who gets off on making people feel lesser than you. You might be at the top of your field, but you’re the bottom of the barrel when it comes to human beings. Maybe hanging out with dead people all day suits you, because you have no business spreading your toxicity to the living.”
His face looked like I had just slapped him, nostrils flared and eyes wide in shock. Shock that someone had dared to speak to his majesty that way.
I could take a lot and smile through it. Dr. Campbell had been an asshole to me from the moment we’d met. But here he was calling me lazy and privileged, while the whole time I had been trying to tough out this internship with literally the clothes on my back. I didn’t want a gold medal for enduring my shaky start, but I deserved some respect.
His throat worked as he swallowed, digesting my retort. Then he leaned in, his lips hovering inches from my own. “You want more free time?” His voice came out more like a hiss than a whisper. “Then consider yourself suspended.”
He stomped away, clenched fists at his sides.
I stood there stunned, the ache in my foot nowhere near comparable to that in my chest.What the fuck did I just do?
Chapter 7
“I can’t believe I was such an idiot!”
“I’m sure it’s not as bad as you think, sweetheart.” Mom was usually good at talking me off the ledge, but not this time. Instead, I felt myself getting more worked up as we spoke. It wasn’t that she was irritating me; I was just too heated reliving the whole debacle.
“Mom, I called him aprick!”
“Correction: anarrogantprick,” Angela quipped as she walked into our hostel room after serving her jail sentence under Warden Campbell’s iron fist at the site. She loved recalling details from my humiliation any chance she had.Friend vacancy still open. Only requirement is that you let me borrow your clothes.
“Is that my Angela?” Mom’s voice echoed through speakerphone. It was eight in the evening my time, which meant Mom was most likely on her lunch hour. The time difference was a bit frustrating when it came to staying in contact, but now that I was on suspension, I was free as a bird, though I hadn’t had a chance to call her before now because I had been rushed off to the clinic to see a doctor about my ankle soon after my blowup with Dr. Campbell. And then I’d spent much of the next day sleeping off the pain medication.
“Hey, Ms. T! How’s it going?” Angela shouted from her bed as she undid the laces of her boots.
“Not too bad. Missing you girls. The house is quiet without you around.”
“Oh, please! You know you’re throwing wild parties without us,” Angela teased.
Mom chuckled. “You caught me. All male models, all day. With tiny banana hammocks.”
“Mom!” I exclaimed.
“What?! Mothers need love, too!” Mom shot back.
