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I shivered and pushed the menu away. "I think I'll stick with vegetarian tonight.”
Theo frowned and bumped my shoulder lightly with his. "Hey," he said in a low voice. "You feeling okay, or…”
The warm weight of him at my arm was so familiar, so reassuring, that for a moment I wanted to bury my face in his shoulder and pretend the rest of the world didn't exist. But, I reminded myself, that ship had sailed. We were normal again, and I was not going to screw that up.
I let myself lean into him a little longer than necessary, though, and I couldn't help the sigh that escaped. "I'm fine," I said. "Just tired. And headachy, maybe."
Something bumped my leg.
No—not something. Luca had bumped my leg. He was ordering, speaking in fluent Velartan to the waiter, and when he turned, his knee pressed firmly against mine. For a moment I was frozen, my right arm snug against Theo's, and my left leg making unabashed contact with Luca's, and I found I didn't really want to pull away from either of them. My startled gaze suddenly locked with Vanessa's, all the way at the other end of the table.
Irina, at her left, was pouring more wine, one arm draped across Vanessa's shoulders. Georg was actually feeding her, his oil-slicked fingers making entirely more contact than necessary with her laughing mouth.
She glanced first at Theo, then Luca; then her merry eyes found their way back to me. She lifted her glass and winked.
15
"Okay, I have an idea." Theo held the door for me and I slipped by him into the dorm. Raheem's footsteps echoed up the stairwell ahead of us. Vanessa, of course, had disappeared into the night with her consorts, and Luca had bid me a lingering farewell at the restaurant. I was aching with exhaustion and slightly lightheaded from the wine, but I was sad to see the night end. I realized that, all through dinner, I hadn't thought about the book once.
"What's that?" I asked.
Theo didn't answer for a moment, and I turned to look at him. His expression was guarded, as if he knew I wasn't going to like his next words. I raised an eyebrow and he blew out a breath. "I think you should see a doctor."
He was right, I didn't like it one bit. "Theo—"
"No, wait," he interrupted. "Before you turn into your dad and irrationally swear off doctors for the rest of your life, hear me out."
I growled, but shut my mouth, letting him lead me up the stairs.
"I know you think whatever is going on with you has something to do with the book, or the dig site, or something—"
"Theo, you yourself said—"
He raised his voice to speak over me. "And you know I believe you that there's something weird going on, and it's not as simple as sleepwalking. But, I think it really wouldn't hurt to go get checked out first, just to make sure. What if it's something easily treatable that we're just not thinking of?"
He gave me his best puppy-dog look, eyes wide and sincere.
“Nope.” I held up a hand, blocking his face from view. “Don’t look at me like that. It won’t work this time.”
He dodged my hand and dropped the expression. "But I promised your dad. He'll kill me if I let you sleepwalk off a cliff or something."
I scowled. "Fine. I'll look into it in the morning. But you have to come with me."
"Of course." Theo touched my arm as we approached my door. "I was also thinking about tonight.”
“Of course you were,” I muttered under my breath.
He ignored my comment. "Why don't you stay in my room? We can hang out and try to stay up all night, like we used to in college."
"Oh man." I wrinkled my nose. "I haven't pulled an all-nighter since just before finals, junior year. And you remember how well that turned out."
He huffed a laugh. "I seem to recall they did actually let you take the exam."
"Yeah, half an hour late, with no extra time."
"But you passed."
I snorted. "No thanks to you."
