“Sababa. You’ve said that. I get it. I’m cool with that.”

“You say that now. But how many more conversations like the one I tried to have with you earlier—”

Nir had opened his mouth to interrupt, but Nicole put up her hand. “How many more of those kinds of spiritual conversations can we have before you just get tired of it and end things between us?”

“I don’t know. A better question is why we have to keep having these conversations. Why are you not content for you to believe what you believe and for me to believe what I believe?”

“Because it doesn’t work that way, Nir. Okay, think of it this way. What if that coffee mug was made out of lead?”

“That would make for some pretty nasty coffee.” He laughed.

Nicole didn’t smile. “Let’s say I told you using that lead mug would kill you, but you still came in here and used it day after day. You loved that lead mug, and you were determined to keep drinking from it. Then one day you got so frustrated with my telling you to get rid of it that you told me you never wanted to hear me talk about it again. What should I do?”

Nir didn’t answer. This was not the way he’d hoped this conversation would go.

“Would the loving thing be to just shut up about the mug so we could get along? Sure, I’d have to watch you killing yourself one day at a time, but as long as we had some laughs together and I didn’t offend you anymore, it would all be good. Or would the loving thing be to risk our friendship, risk our future, risk everything we had so I could save your life?”

The impossibility of their relationship was sinking in. Nir saw no prospect that Nicole would ever budge on this point. Any hope he had for a future with her was fading into nothing.

“But you’re not saving my life, Nicole,” he said quietly. “I’m not dying.”

“Maybe not physically. Spiritually, though, you’re already dead. I’m just trying to show you how God can bring you back to life.”

Nir shook his head and sighed. “I don’t get it. We used to have so much fun together. Now it’s like you’ve become this one-note violin.”

Nicole stared at him, and for a long moment neither of them uttered a word. Then a tear trailed from one of her ice-blue eyes. “It’s the only note that really matters, Nir.”

She stood and walked out of the café.

July 2021: (Three Weeks Later)

JULY 2021

(THREE WEEKS LATER)

Chapter 49

CHAPTER 49

THREE WEEKS LATER

MOSSAD HEADQUARTERS, TEL AVIV, ISRAEL—JULY 23, 2021—08:30 / 8:30 A.M. IDT