Chapter 259: Do you really think we’re never meeting again?
Wrapped in her bathrobe, Adelyn stood in front of the bathroom mirror. She was applying moisturizer while looking at her reflection—
But her mind was elsewhere entirely.
"No ... I’m probably overthinking this," she muttered to herself, shaking her head. "What I just felt wasn’t some romantic attraction ... it was physical attraction. And physical attraction is normal, isn’t it?"
She wasn’t merely trying to understand it.
She was trying to convince herself as well.
After all, nothing else made sense to her.
She couldn’t remember ever feeling anything remotely similar toward anyone before. And the more unfamiliar the feeling became, the more it unsettled her heart within.
"Physical attraction ... yes," she murmured again, more firmly this time while meeting her own eyes in the mirror. "It’s definitely his physique that made me react that way. And he isn’t the only one. Any man with a body like his would have made me feel the same."
Although she spoke with confidence, there was still something unconvinced in her voice.
A lingering trace of doubt.
Then, suddenly, something came to her mind, and her eyes lit up.
"Yes! Any man with a physique like his would have had the same effect on me. Otherwise ..." She paused, her expression brightening. "... why would I have dated that jerk of an ex-boyfriend years ago? It must have been his looks ... and his body ... that must have attracted me."
The knot of uncertainty in her heart finally began to loosen.
Even the hesitation in her eyes seemed to fade.
After all, even if she was medically incapable of experiencing the emotion called love, it didn’t change the fact that she was still a woman ...
Still human.
And humans experienced more than just love.
They experienced attraction.
Desire.
Lust.
"It’s probably just lust —intense lust that almost made my body forget its incapability to experience romance," she muttered without realizing she had spoken the words aloud.
The moment she realized it, her eyes immediately darted toward the bathroom door.
Finding it securely locked, she finally sighed in relief.
She looked back at herself in the mirror and smiled faintly.
With the confusion weighing on her heart finally eased, she felt much better.
Even so, she still picked up her phone and dialed Nigel’s number.
The call connected after only a few rings.
She waited for him to speak.
One second.
Two.
Three ...
Still nothing.
Pursing her lips, she finally broke the silence. "Did you forget how to greet your grandma, grandson?"
There was a brief pause from the other end.
Then—
"You surely didn’t call just to lecture me about respecting my elders," Nigel replied lazily. "So tell me what it is."
Adelyn stared at herself in the mirror and pursed her lips.
"Since you sound so busy already, I won’t waste time beating around the bush."
She paused.
"... Tell me ... was my ex-boyfriend extremely handsome?"
Nigel sounded genuinely caught off guard.
"Ex-boyfriend?"
"Yes ... ex-boyfriend." Adelyn frowned slightly. "I had one, didn’t I?"
Although she had no memories of him and could only recall the vaguest silhouette of a man, Nigel had once told her about him.
If anyone remembered him clearly ...
It would be Nigel.
"Don’t tell me I never had one and you were lying to me all along?"
"Why are you suddenly asking about him?" Nigel asked instead.
Adelyn quietly let out a breath of relief and gently patted her chest.
For a second, she had almost believed there had never been an ex-boyfriend —that Nigel had simply invented one to tease her.
If that had been true ...
Then what she had just felt toward Dylan would have become far too difficult to explain.
"Since I’m asking, can’t you just answer me?" she said, sounding slightly annoyed. "Why do you always answer questions with more questions?"
"Am I obligated to answer you?" Nigel shot back calmly.
"You—"
"If you want answers from me," he continued leisurely, "then you should learn to answer mine first. Otherwise, you know very well you can’t force me to tell you anything."
Adelyn clenched her fingers and glared at her own reflection.
Even though Nigel wasn’t standing in front of her, she could picture that infuriating expression on his face perfectly.
"Do you really think we’re never meeting again, Cub?" she asked through gritted teeth. "Or do you think that in the few days I’ve been away, you’ve somehow learned enough to outrun me?"
"..."
Nigel stayed silent for a moment before finally replying,
"I haven’t thought that far ahead. But I have decided I’m not telling you anything until you answer my question first."
"You—"
Adelyn inhaled deeply before slowly calming herself.
She nodded at her reflection.
"Fine. I’ll tell you."
"I’m asking because I’m simply curious about him," she admitted. "Curious about the person I’ve almost completely forgotten."
She paused thoughtfully.
"What could possibly have made me fall for him?"
Her brows slowly knitted together.
"He must have been really handsome ... with an exquisitely carved physique."
She looked into the mirror again.
"Wasn’t he? Otherwise ... you know love isn’t my thing."
Only that could explain her.
Nothing else made sense.
Silence followed.
The line remained quiet.
That silence quickly made Adelyn impatient.
"You —what’s taking you so long to answer?" she complained. "You’d better not go back on your word, Nigel Smith."
"What exactly do you want to know?" Nigel asked lazily. "Say it again."
Adelyn felt her patience snap.
"You—" she grumbled. "I just asked what he looked like! Was he handsome —too handsome? Did he have a god-like body? Is that really such a difficult question to answer?"
She narrowed her eyes.
"Don’t tell me you’re jealous—"
"Handsome?" Nigel scoffed. His voice was filled with undisguised disdain.
"Only you would ever think he was handsome."
He paused briefly before adding, "Otherwise, since when did the Devil and the darkness in him start being romanticized?"
Before Adelyn could even respond—
A sharp beep echoed from her phone.
The line had disconnected.
She blinked in surprise before lowering the phone to look at the screen.
Just as she had thought ...
Nigel had already hung up on her.
