Page 11 of In Doubt

“I’ll come check up on you, keep an eye on you. And if he tries–”

“Thanks,” I tell him, positive it won’t come to that. I’m no longer a naïve little girl.

I grab a seat with Sia near the front, trying not to notice the disgruntle look Jake throws me as he saunters down the aisle. He’s obviously as unhappy as I am about this pairing.

“Oh Giorgie,” Sia mutters, wrapping her arm around me. “It’s not the end of the world.”

“Maybe not to you–”

“It isn’t. Just take a professional approach and I’m sure he will too. It sounds like there is a real chance you might find something special out there.”

“I doubt he can be professional. He’ll probably sabotage our dig just to get at me.”

“Jake really isn’t that bad.”

“He is!”

“Really? Why? What has he actually done?”

For the second time this morning I open my mouth and no words come out. “He ... he…”

“Yes?”

What exactly has he done? Scowled at me a lot? Directed snippy comments my way? Muttered under his breath whenever I answer a question in class? Threatened to snatch that prestigious place on the professor’s team from my grasp?

None of thosedosound earth-ending when you put it like that.

Then I remember the words Carl had overheard, remember those gossip columns in the paper, remember who exactly he reminds me of.

I bite my tongue and turn towards the window.

I wish I could believe her but experience has taught me otherwise. Experience has taught me to be on the lookout for alphas who will take advantage of an omega like me.

The landscape here is lush from the Nile’s waters, but at the lightening horizon I can see the shifting dunes of the desert. The temple sits between the two. At the edge of fertile land, where the desert begins. No good for farming and hence undisturbed until recently.

We weave through the dense green shelter of the palm trees and grasses and drive out into the sunshine. Already bright enough to make us squint despite the ungodly hour. As we turn a bend, driving between an outcrop of golden rocks, we see the site in the distance. The bus fills with excited chatter. It’s so much bigger than I had pictured in my mind. The size of a cathedral easily and covered in makeshift tents, diggers and other machinery waiting silently to one side.

“This is it, folks,” Professor Weaver says, standing in the aisle and grinning like everyone else on the coach. Her whole body seems to buzz with energy, and it’s clear she is as excited as the rest of us.

I can hardly sit still, the metres between us and the site taking an age to close. All my worries about my unsuitable partner vanish as I stare open-mouthed at the tip of the temple peeking out above the sand. Sia squeals beside me, squeezing my hand, and for a second I can hardly breathe.

It’s not until we’re climbing out of the air con coach and the heat of the desert slaps me straight in the face that I remember.

My suppressant. The medication I take to control my heats.

In my rush this morning, I forgot to take it.

4

Jake

It’s magical out here. Only the top of the temple has been exposed so far, the rest buried beneath the earth. Regardless, it is still a sight to behold. Men work painstakingly to remove the desert’s sand that over the decades have shifted to cover and, hopefully, preserve this temple. It’s believed to be an offering to Rah, God of the sun, the first, the Egyptians believed, of the alphas.

I can picture the alphas of Ancient Egypt travelling here to leave offerings to a god who gave them their power, their strength, their knots, their omegas.

The ascending sun warms my skin and I tip back my head to breathe the dry air of the desert, unchanged, I’m certain, in all this time.

A sweetness melts across my tongue and I snap open my eyes in frustration. That scent again; doomed to torture me for the next ten days. There isn’t much I can do about it today beyond my emergency suppressant. Tonight I’ll discuss with the others what additional measures I can take to try to reduce the impact of her goddamn stench.