Page 71 of A Discovery: Love and Other Things

Oh, yeah—the thing that I’d been wracking my brain over for the last hour. “Um...that’s what I’m stuck on.” I flashed him a toothy grin, hoping any sort of cuteness would distract him from further nagging.

But it was a failure. “You didn’t name your paper yet?” he prodded.

I tilted my head back on his shoulder and stared up at the ceiling. “You make it sound like it should be so easy. This is my capstone. The project that earns me my degree. How can I possibly settle on a title when we found so many things that were equally relevant?”

He nudged me to cease the theatrics and to sit upright. It was his way of saying,We have shit to accomplish. “You’re thinking too hard and it’s fucking with your brain. This is the last step you need to complete before submitting your paper to your adviser for proofing. Is it possible that the finality of it all is holding you back?”

I hadn’t thought about it that way. Maybe I was sabotaging myself because this was essentially the last big obstacle standing in the way of me earning my degree. “Maybe,” I grunted with my arms crossed over my chest.

He pulled my hair aside, exposing my neck. His warm lips pressed a soft kiss just below my ear, bringing my skin to life. “What is your paper about?”

I rolled my eyes. “You know what it’s about.”

“This isn’t for me. It’s for you to brainstorm effectively. Tell me what it’s about.”

His strategy sounded stupid, but I wasn’t getting anywhere doing it my way, so it couldn’t hurt to try another way. “It’s about findings at the temple that—”

He cut me off. “No. Not all of that. Don’t list each find. What was the result of your research, in one word?”

I exhaled forcefully as my brain worked. “Um...a discovery?”

James’s brow hitched and his voice deepened. “Are you asking me or telling me?”

Ugh.I hated when he got all teacher on me. Okay, I didn’t hate it all the time. It was still fun to role-play in the bedroom sometimes.

“A discovery happened,” I said firmly.

“Good,” he nodded. “A discovery of what?”

“Dusty swag belonging to dead people?”

“Sanura,” he warned.

My first name on his lips in that tone made my thighs squeeze together.

“What did you find in the temple? The bigger idea. Maybe it was something intangible, like a concept.”

I thought about what concept I had stumbled upon during my internship. “Love.”

“Love?” he asked with interest.

“Yeah...love. Ankhesenamun built the temple out of love for Tutankhamun, to honor him for eternity. As fucked up as it was that she was also his sister, there was something beautiful about her loyalty to Tutankhamun. She covertly created the temple, though it was modest, behind everyone’s back as a testament to her determination. We should all be so lucky to find someone who loves us the way that Ankhesenamun loved Tutankhamun.”

I could see my words marinating in his mind. “It’s definitely intriguing. What other key words jump out at you that belong in the title?”

Before I could answer, my phone rang.

I looked at the screen. “Aaqil?”

James peeked over my shoulder at the name on the caller ID. “The PI?”

“Yeah.” I hadn’t heard from him in months. He seemed to have run into a dead end while searching for my uncle and his family. I’d been a complete mess after that last phone call and it had taken me two days to snap out of my depression.

I had forced myself to come to terms with the fact that I would never meet my dad’s brother. Baba was long gone, as were any remnants of his past. It was time for me to move on.

“Answer it,” James urged when I just stared at the screen like an idiot.

Unwanted feelings bubbled inside me as I pressed the phone icon. “Hello?”

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