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swallowed before speaking again. “Have you heard from Dalton?”
    “Nope, not a word. Guess he won’t be coming home.” This new topic seemed to produce as much tension as the last one, and it dawned on me that Professor North wasn’t as unflappable as I’d thought.  His phone rang and he pulled it out of his pocket and looked at it. His charming smile returned. “Excuse me, I need to take this.” He winked at me and left the room.
    Ethan glanced up from his plate. “I know I’ve seen you around campus several times.  You’re with Trenton Peters, aren’t you?”
    My eyes must have shown my shock at the question.
    “Sorry, none of my business,” he said quickly and returned to his waffle.
    “No, that’s fine. We’re not dating anymore.”
    “Relationships are tough. I’m sorry. I hope he wasn’t too much of a jerk. Ultra rich people like Trenton think they can stomp on hearts anytime.” The glint in his blue eyes had faded, and it was obvious he was thinking of Veronica as he spoke.
    “Actually, I’m the one who ended it.”
    His eyes widened. “Really? Good for you. These people who think they can buy friends and affection with money need to be put in their place every once in awhile.” He added more syrup to his waffle. “So, where do you live in California?”
    “Bel Air.”
    His face shot up. “Oh. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean all rich people deserved to be put—”
    I laughed and shook my head. “Can we start all of this from the beginning because my dreams for an awesome family holiday were destroyed, and I had a harrowing trip up here, and I was really looking forward to this but aside from this unfrigginbelievable waffle and the charming lavender room, it has been a disappointing start.” I stuck my hand out. “Hi, I’m August Stonefield, but my friends call me Auggie. And I hope we’ll be friends because you seem like an amazing guy and I hate the name August.”
    He stared at me over his loaded fork, looking somewhat surprised and then he smiled and took my hand. “Ethan North, occasional amazing guy and occasional asshat, but I’m happy to meet you, Auggie .”

Chapter 5
    The restart on the morning had helped. Professor North had taken a long time with his conversation, and he had remained somewhat flustered or at least more flustered than his usual demeanor, but the remainder of breakfast had been pleasant and I was stuffed to the gills with waffles. And, I soon discovered that whatever Ethan lacked in character, he made up for in knowledge.
    The shards of pottery that the professor had made sound so uninspiring were far from it. They were broken remains of a world so far removed from our own it was nearly impossible to believe it had existed. I’d been obsessed with Ancient Egypt since the sixth grade when we’d studied it for social studies, and while my parents had hoped I would follow my dad and brothers into the business world, or at least marry someone connected to that world, I’d followed my head and heart instead.
    I lifted the clear bag and held the piece of dried clay as if I held one of my mom’s Tiffany champagne flutes, although her glasses were all replaceable. The rough-edged, dark red piece of pottery I held was not.
    Ethan leaned over me and pointed to the broken wall of the fragment. “These layers of red and brown show that this piece of pottery was made from Nile Alluvium. It was a commonly used clay that could be fired at lower temperatures than the Marl clay.” His finger pointed to a tiny sliver of black in the broken wall of the piece. “After washing the clay with water, the potters had to temper the clay to keep it from cracking during the heating process. They added in grass or seed husks to keep it stable.” He lifted the bag and held it up to the light. “See this curve in the wall, this means the piece came from a Restricted vessel.”
    I lifted my hand to stop him from telling me. “That means the body of the vessel was wider than the