“Cross my heart and hope to die.”
She leans closer. “How did you figure that out?”
“His mother also happened to be in Tokyo and saw Axelrod perform. We ran into her the next day and started talking. And that’s when it came out that he was in New Orleans attending the same masquerade party that I did.”
Ellie pulls back, her arms folded. “But that doesn’t mean he’s the Midnight God. There were lots of other men at the party.”
“The details matched. Besides, when I showed him a selfie from New Orleans, me in costume, he recognized me.”
“Oh. My. God.”
“Exactly.” I point at her stunned face. “That’s exactly what I thought.”
“He’s our sex toy inspiration.”
“I know. The first.”
“Seriously. I feel like we should make him a special penis plaque or something.”
I laugh. He’ll probably appreciate being the first person to get to use the products on me more than getting a plaque. The thought crosses my mind fast…and then something about the way it sprang into my head makes me stop laughing.
It’s just the memory of his glamorous mom and his rather tight reaction about her and…
Ellie’s looking at me. “What?”
“What what?”
“Come on. Something’s bothering you. We’ve been friends for too long for me not to know. So what is it?”
The elevator stops, and we get off. Ellie pulls me to the side, obviously determined to hear everything.
“Come on. We have some time to spare”—she swivels her head left and right—“and nobody’s around.”
“Okay. It’s…” I breathe out softly. “According to his mom, he was really sweet to her in New Orleans, right? But when we met again, later, he was totally weird with her and me.”
“What do you mean?”
“You remember how I went to Ted Lasker’s birthday party this year?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s where I actually met his mom for the first time. We were talking, and Griffin showed up and just, like, almost literally dragged her away. Like he was afraid we were going to do something inappropriate.”
Ellie thinks for a second. “Wasn’t that before he came to the company along with Todd for that case study thing?”
“Yup.”
“So he couldn’t have known who you were, like what kind of person you were, at the party.”
“Right. Not even a little. So am I weird for thinking it’s kind of odd?” When Rachel first mentioned it, I was too tired and excited from seeing Tokyo to really think about it. But now…
“Maybe he was worried about what his mom might say to you.”
“But why? She’s really nice.”
Ellie shrugs. “Beats me. Have you talked to him about it?”
“Not yet. He was busy with some research he had to look over, and I didn’t want to bother him.” He spent most of the time in Tokyo doing things to make me happy, so I’m sure he was behind. “Plus I’m just trying to figure out what I think about it first.”