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“Why? Was it an awful breakup?” I ask sweetly.
Tucker flares his nostrils and shakes his head. “You’re like a hound that’s picked up the scent of the fox.” He sighs. “Is there any chance you’ll let the topic drop if I don’t tell you?”
“Not one,” I say.
“Why?”
“For starters, you’re making such a big deal out of it, now I definitely need to know.”
“But why? What difference does it make to you?”
“I’d like to learn a little more about the people I have to spend weeks alone in the jungle with.”
“You’re not asking me about Archie’s past relationships.”
I scoff. “Oh, please, the guy has ‘never been in a serious relationship and not interested in one’ written all over his face. Am I wrong?”
Tucker seems about to retort something, but then deflates. “No, you’re right.”
“And anyway,” I continue. “I’m asking about Tara only because you implied she’s part of the reason Logan is so fastidious about this expedition.”
Tucker looks to the sky. “When will I learn to bite my tongue?” He’s still holding my arm, and now drags me close conspiratorially. “If I tell you, you promise you won’t tell anyone, and that you won’t taunt Logan about it?”
I feel like we’re in the sixth grade. Should we pinky swear? I’m tempted to ask Tucker, but sense it’d be pushing my luck. So, with a solemn face, I say, “I promise.”
“Okay.” Tucker lets me go and goes back to assembling the camping stove. “If I have to be drilled, you might as well help me. Hold this.” He hands me a bracket component while he screws in place more bolts. “So, Tara. She and Logan were this archeology power couple, going on joint expeditions, working in all the best excavation locations, giving cutting edge seminars, all the shebang. They were the darlings of the community. Everyone thought it was just a matter of time before they got married—”
“How long were they together?”
“They met in college and broke up three years ago.”
“You mean, she broke it off. Why?”
“Her career took precedence.” Tucker gestures for me to hand him the bracket and gives me the screwdriver to hold in its place. “The year Logan was awarded tenure at Berkeley, she secured enough funding for a project she’d been researching forever… in Egypt.”
“Aha. A classic long-distance screw-up scenario?”
“Well, not exactly. Logan wanted to make the relationship work. He has only one teaching semester at UCB, so they agreed she’d go to Egypt and he’d join her for the second part of the year when he was free to do his job from anywhere.”
“Then what happened?”
“When his classes were over, Logan went to Egypt as planned, only to return to the States two weeks later, single.”
“Oh. Why?”
“As you can imagine, he’s not super chatty about it.” Tucker pushes a towing handle into the bracket on the grill stand, then pulls on it to make sure it’s locked in place. “But the gist is Tara told him she didn’t have time for love.”
“Ouch,” I say, and scrunch my face. “But what’s the connection between the breakup and Logan being so obsessed with a lost city in the jungle?”
“Ah.” Tucker sighs. “Four months after she broke up with him, Tara unearthed the untouched tomb of Ramses VIII in the Valley of the Kings—I’m talking Tutankhamun level shit. Three years later, and they still haven’t finished cataloging everything they found. There are talks about building a whole new dedicated museum in Cairo…”
“Oh, wait, you’re right. I saw it on the news a few years ago.”
I try hard to remember if a woman was mentioned, but it was too long ago… Even if I’d seen a picture of her, there’s no way I could recall Tara’s looks. And I can’t google her from here. Stupid no-service jungle.
“No kidding.” Tucker scoffs. “That stupid tomb was everything everyone could talk about for months… It still is.”
I make a skeptical face; once it was clear the site was off-limits to the outside press, I’m pretty sure I spent more time obsessing over the latest celebrity breakup.
