Nir took a sip of his drink. “So the ramsad will go to the crown prince on the prime minister’s behalf, present him the evidence, and ask him to let us fly our air force over his country on our way to knock the snot out of Iran’s nuclear program.”

“Such an elegant way of putting it,” she said with a wink. “Do you think the crown prince will say yes?”

“I don’t know. It’s a big ask. He’ll know the pros, but he’ll also recognize that he’ll pay a price internationally and with the Houthis. Those Yemeni rebels are already making his life miserable, like being perpetually bitten by a swarm of sandflies. If he does say yes, he’ll want something big for it.”

“Of course, because, as you love to say, everything in the Middle East is a deal.”

Nir laughed. “Spoken like a true Jew! Nothing is ever given or received for free. He’ll ask for some intelligence or technology or weaponry or something.”

“Will the prime minister agree to the price?”

“I guess it depends on what it is. But probably yes. We’re not really in a strong bargaining position.”

“The Middle East is so weird.”

“As opposed to your African home, where everything is so stable all the time.”

Nicole laughed. “Touché.” She took another pull from her straw, then sat back looking at him with a smirk on her face.

“Tired of shoptalk?” Nir asked.

“Dreadfully.”

“Good, because I have something I want to talk about.”

Nicole leaned forward. “Sounds ominous,” she said with a glint in her eyes.

“I just…it’s… Okay, so when we were jogging back to the LZ to get picked up by the Yanshuf and flown out, there was nothing to do but bleed and think for an hour and a half. Want to know what I thought about most of the time?”

“Aunt Mila’s cocoa?”

Nir laughed. “No, I thought about you…about us. I thought about this, these coffees, and the rare times we get to see each other. I thought that if that round had been a few millimeters to the right, I would have died not telling you exactly how I feel about you.”

“Stop.” Nicole was dead serious. “We can’t have this conversation.”

Exasperated, Nir leaned back. “Why?”

“You know exactly why, Nir. We’ve been over this so many times already.”

“Okay, I do know why. I just don’t get it. I know Jews who are married to Muslims. I know Muslims who are with Christians. And I know Christians who are with Jews. Why does it seem like everyone can make it work except us?”

Nicole paused, and he could tell she was collecting her thoughts. “I can’t speak for those other people. All I know is that Jesus is the most important person in my life.”