Well, that was hard to mistake. It carried all the undertones of a Confession with a capital 'c,' and that wasn't something she would dishonor. It took guts for him to say that, to risk her not feeling the same way... or worse, if she returned it.
This sucked. This really, really sucked. She was used to going after what she wanted, and to hear Karl admit that he didn't see her as just a partner normally would have been enough to get her to take matters into her own hands -- by taking his face into her hands and kissing him until his lips were swollen. But she'd come too far, worked too hard to throw it all away on some attraction. She was a DIA agent, she was proud of that, and she was not about to give it up.
"We can be friends," Alyssa admitted, even if that was impossible. She was fairly sure she'd never feel strictly friendly feelings towards Karl again. But that was all she had to give. "But we can't be more than that and stay partners."