Neo did not answer at once.
Her question had come out simple, almost elegant, but there was nothing simple in it. She was not asking whether Leo annoyed him, or whether he came across as arrogant. She wanted the real thing. The first instinct. The ugly one. The part people usually kept inside.
'So that's what this was.'
He rested one forearm on the table and studied her across the plates and the citylight. The teasing had thinned from her voice. It had not vanished entirely, because that seemed stitched into her by now, but something colder had stepped forward and taken its place.
"What do you want to know exactly about him?" Neo asked.
