I jerk my head indecisively. “Yes and no. I don’t mind not finding the toes of my socks cut off or my bed full of jam, but I do mind that he’s not talking to me.”
“He’s not?”
“No.” I stop and face him, the energy giving way to fatigue. I haven’t been sleeping well recently, lying awake in case Neo decides to show his face. “He’s been odd with me ever since our date.”
“Ah, the date.” Ansel nods slowly. “The arcade was a nice touch. He’s always loved those. Lost himself in those for hours…”
I take a step closer to him. “So hehasspoken to you.”
Ansel shrugs a shoulder. “Kinda. He mentioned that the two of you went out, that he requested it through The Firm, but that was it. I thought it was strange at the time, but I figured maybe he didn’t want to encourage everyone’s teasing.”
I grunt. “Neo doesn’t give a shit about that.”
“True,” Ansel sighs. “I should’ve known better, really. Neo doesn’t shut up at the best of times. Thinking about it now, it’s definitely weird he didn’t say more.”
“So, you don’t know what’s wrong with him?”
“Nope.” Ansel studies me closely. “But that’s not what’s important right now.”
“What?” How can he say that? Neo’s upset, and that’s more important than anything else.
“I’m more concerned about why you care,” Ansel muses. “So what if Neo’s upset? What does it matter to you?”
I practically splutter in indignation. “It…it matters! Something’s wrong, and it’s something I did. I know it. I have to fix it.”
Ansel doesn’t break his stare. “But why?”
“Because Ihaveto.” I tug at my hair in frustration. “He’s not happy, and I can’tstandit.”
A slow smile works over Ansel’s face. “Holy shit. You like him.”
I flinch. It’s one thing to admit it to Samson, but Ansel? It’ll have my brothers on my tail before I make it to my office. “Don’t be ridiculous. I care about him as my employee.”
“Yeah, okay,” Ansel says. I don’t need to be good at reading people to know he’s being sarcastic. “If you say so.”
“Will you help me? I can’t go another day with him ignoring me. It’s messing everything up.”
“All right, walk me through the date,” Ansel says. “Tell me everything.”
I do, careful not to miss a single detail. I even admit that I shared secrets with Neo, but not what they were.
I’m not comfortable opening up to anyone other than Neo.
“He was fine until the diner,” I conclude miserably. “I don’t know where I went wrong.”
“Neither do I, if I’m being honest.” Ansel bites his lower lip, his gaze somewhere in the distance. “Unless…unless you didn’t do anything wrong.”
“If that’s the case, why is he ignoring me?”
Ansel nibbles at his bottom lip. “I can’t betray his confidence.”
“So you do know something.”
“Not about you or your date, no.” He fidgets with the edge of his sleeve, speaking carefully. “But I know him. He doesn’t like to get close to people.”
“That’s not true. Up until our date, he was attempting to live in my lap.”
And sleep in my bed.
