Chapter 23 #2
“Relax, Isaac.” She paused to look back at me with one hand already on the railing beside the steps.
“It’s a private tour of the inside of the Pyramid.
They closed it to the public years ago, but like I said, there are some advantages to being a Saad.
Now, are you coming? Or should I go find that older couple who spoke to us earlier?
I’m sure they would love to be in your shoes right about now. ”
As it dawned on me what she’d somehow managed to arrange, I scrambled to the steps and followed her down. “This is amazing. How did you do it?”
She shrugged. “I might’ve called a few people while we were still on the coast to set the wheels in motion, but we have permission to be here. Don’t worry.”
“Yeah. Okay.” The passage narrowed and the ceiling dropped lower, and I decided to leave everything that wasn’t part of this moment at the top of that staircase.
Ancient stone surrounded us on every side, older than almost every civilization I’d ever studied. Getting to do what we were warranted forgetting about absolutely everything else right now. Without thinking, I reached out and brushed my fingertips across the stone.
It’s been thousands of years and this is still here. Still standing.
There had been no blueprints or computers when this had been built. No fancy software or imported steel. I honestly couldn’t even begin to imagine what it had taken to construct these or the brilliance of those involved.
Eventually, the passage opened into a burial chamber and then a crypt, and I suddenly couldn’t bring myself to take even one more step. While the room wasn’t dripping in gold or treasure, there was something heavy about it. Almost like I could feel how sacred it was.
An empty stone sarcophagus stood silently in the center of the chamber, massive granite blocks enclosing the room. As I stared at it all, just trying to take it in, I was so completely and utterly in awe that I could barely even breathe.
Someone imagined this, drew it in the sand, and then convinced thousands of other people to build what should’ve been impossible, and they succeeded. Honestly, it was beyond the realm of comprehension.
“What are you thinking?” Jasmine asked quietly from my side. I hadn’t seen or heard her approach, but she was right next to me, her gaze sweeping across the side of my face. “It’s pretty cool, huh?”
“I don’t know if I’m thinking anything. I don’t think I can think at all. Does that even make sense?”
She let out a soft chuckle. “It does, but your face said you were thinking something really intense.”
“No, I’m just feeling, I think.”
The smile slowly slipped away from her face, a more thoughtful expression replacing it. “What are you feeling?”
“Small,” I said. “Insignificant.”
She frowned. “I thought you’d be inspired.”
“Yeah, so did I.”
Unfortunately, I knew now that my biggest inspiration had been her. And I was losing her more by the second. So I just stood in that crypt, lost for words until she finally smiled again and nudged my arm. “We should go. I arranged for a visit, not a sleepover.”
“Fair enough.” I swept my gaze around the room one last time and fell into step beside her, feeling like I was drifting my way back up through the narrow stone passages. “That was really something, Jasmine. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to thank you enough.”
“There’s no need,” she said quietly without looking at me. “I think I needed this today myself.”
Once again, we lapsed into silence, neither of us saying a word as we headed back to Heliopolis. By the time we got there, the streetlights were on and night was falling. As we headed inside, the tension that had been building the whole way back snapped, the bickering starting up again.
Those moments we’d shared at the Pyramids were suddenly so far in the past it was like they’d never even existed in the first place.
“The Roman Empire rose and fell faster than you got us back here,” she said. “I knew you shouldn’t have been allowed to drive in Cairo.”
I frowned. “What have you got to be annoyed about? You spent the entire drive back scrolling Instagram. Isn’t that what you would’ve been doing in your apartment anyway?”
She scoffed. “Oh, wow. We’re back there, huh?”
“I have no idea what you mean.” I jabbed the button to call the elevator. Bitterness wound itself through my bloodstream as I thought about the fact that I would be leaving soon. “I was just saying. Isn’t that what you do all night anyway, look at pictures of yourself on that app?”
“You have no idea what I do all night, nor will you ever,” she snapped. “It’s not scrolling Instagram, though. I’ll tell you that much.”
Neither of us spoke again until we reached her apartment door. She unlocked it and pushed it open, but then she turned to look at me. For a long second, she just stared up into my eyes, but then finally, she sighed and shook her head. “Have a good time in Chicago, Isaac.”
“I won’t.”
“Why not?”
I shrugged, my eyes narrowing as I held hers. “I don’t want to go.”
We stood there for what felt like eternity, still just staring at each other until I realized I was supposed to be leaving. As I turned toward the elevator, she turned toward her door, but neither of us had even taken a single step when we both turned to look back at the exact same moment.
“Oh, for the love of—” I started, but then her lips crashed into mine and we were kissing.
I didn’t even know who’d closed the distance between us or how it’d happened so fast, but her arms wound around my neck to pull me closer and I wrapped both my arms around her waist, devouring her mouth like I was never letting go.
As I walked her back into her apartment with our bodies fused together just like that, I knew this was a ferociously terrible idea, but if I had to say goodbye, then I was going to make it the best fucking goodbye either of us had ever had.