He didn't like it when he had to cover things up, most of all with Alyssa. Partners were supposed to be built on trust--this he learned during his years in the Department of War, turned Department of Defense. When trust was not evident, lives could be lost and things that shouldn't have happened, did.
Unfortunately, Karl knew all of this through experience, immortal trial-and-error.
But she seemed to have moved on, and Karl didn't want to tackle the tricky subject again. He would have to lie, until they were safe out of that range.
"If he doesn't scare her off with sudden lack of vocab when he sees her," Karl snorted, not exactly impressed with that sudden insight of his friend, but despite all his jokes about Ryan, they were close. Weapons of war, they still had mutual respect for each other and their own trades.
"Guess." He looked over at her, meeting her eyes for an instance before looking away again. "Don't worry, you won't hurt my feelings if you do."