The Italian Vow (Croesus #1)

Chapter 19

Laura Conti's POV

"Um, Laura, can I ask you a question," one of my students went to my office to ask some questions about the specimen that we were discussing in the lab yesterday.

"Yeah, sure. What do you don't understand?" I said as I went to put my stuff away. It was my office hour right now from 11-12 PM. I was just working on some stuff about my research in Albania that I have decided to look at once more before submitting it to the Peer Review.

"It was about the hair that was stuck on her head that did not even budge when it had been buried for a long time. Was the hair follicle would deteriorate at that depth and level?" She asked as she was sitting next to me.

"Um, well, it depends on how much pressure and how the sedimentary rocks would preserve it when it first got buried in it. And if it was lucky enough to be preserved in a good way because soft tissue preservation was very rare and it is one of the specimens that we found that preserved in that condition.

"It was enough to say that it would be great to do some more research on that field, you might be considered going talk to one of the Paleobiology professors about those. I was limited on that information," I said to her as I offered her my colleague's email for her to reach out to.

"Oh, okay. Well, thank you for your help, Laura," she said before saying goodbye to me as she was having another class on Friday evening. Jeez, who does that?

"Hey," Stella knocked on the door and went inside my office.

"Oh, hey. How is it going?" I said to her as I went back to finish my review of my papers. Stella took a seat in front of my desk as she was looking at me intently.

"What?" I said as I was looking at her briefly before continuing my reading.

"So, I heard from a little birdie that you will have a date tonight," she said as she wriggled her eyebrows.

"Where do you get that? I think that little birdie of yours is wrong," I said as I make some notes on my paper.

"Huh, is that how you want to play? Okay, so riddle me this, where were you last weekend? I saw that you canceled your class and only returned on Wednesday," Stella said as she was skimming one of my books.

"Why should I tell you?" I asked, arching my eyebrows at her.

"Exactly! You never told me when you were in a weekend gateway with that hot brute of yours," she said before I cleared my throat, trying to focus on my task, which of course I failed.

"Am I right? You ARE with him, did you? That's why you ghosted me last weekend. You don't even pick up my calls!" Stella said as she was acting all surprised at the discovery. I rolled my eyes at her as she was always dramatic. She double-majored in English and Theatrical Arts and was an honor student at that.

"Do you mind? I tried to concentrate here," I said as I worked on my reviews. Suddenly, my phone rang.

"That was him, is it? Let me hear it, let me hear it," she said as she wanted to take my phone.

"No!" I said before picking up the call. I did not even bother to look at the caller ID.

"Hello?" I said as Stella was trying to hear my conversation.

"Hi, this is Nathan White, Lucca's friend. We met during the party at Lucca's parent's house," the oddly familiar voice from the end of the line.

"Ah, yes, Nate. I remembered. How is it going? Why are you calling me out of blue?" I said as I was trying to avoid Stella's attempt of crushing me with her head.