Chapter 133

Nicole's POV The café had been the perfect choice for this particular performance—intimate enough to suggest genuine reconciliation, public enough to ensure witnesses if anyone questioned our renewed association. I sat across from Adrian, watching him nurse his coffee with the careful attention of someone still processing recent emotional upheaval, and felt a familiar satisfaction at how easily he remained susceptible to the right combination of vulnerability and strategic timing. Three weeks of careful absence had been exactly what the situation required. Long enough for his anger about our explosive breakup to cool into something manageable, brief enough that he hadn't moved on to any other romantic entanglements that might complicate my plans. The calculated withdrawal had allowed me to assess the situation from a distance, plan my approach with surgical precision, and return at the exact moment when his loneliness would make him most receptive to reconciliation. "I've had time to t