Simple sticking charms and magic weren't quite conducive to really showing off anything but, well, magic, but Axel managed to come up with an excuse for why he removed his shirt after putting up only two tiles (it was hot and his sleeves were getting in his way, obviously). Unlike Ashleigh, he did glance back at her as they worked in the silence, every so often, just to look at her. She seemed to be concentrating very hard. Either that, or she was doing her best to ignore him, because he was very sure that, had she seen him, she'd have made a comment about his state of undress.
Regardless of which one it was (or if it was something completely different), he didn't want to disturb her. And besides, he really wanted to get this right, to show her he could, so he, too, needed to concentrate and go perhaps much slower than he might have gone otherwise, but that was only to double check himself as he went along to made sure it looked like she wanted it to. It had taken him a minute to understand what she had going on with the plans, but he was fairly certain he got it right.
As he had no idea what had been going on in her head, or that she and Aisling had talked about him, so he was entirely unprepared for what she said when she finally spoke. His brows furrowed and he turned around to face her, abandoning the project on the wall; Axel was torn between reminding her that the question had been a joke, and wanting very badly to know her answer. He thought he knew what she was going to say, but it still would have been nice to hear aloud, for finality or something.
"It was a joke, Ashleigh," he finally settled on, as it was the safe response, "and we both know what the answer would've been." No, obviously. Not that Axel wanted to simply have sex with her, not anymore. What he wanted was something he was never going to get from her, either because she wasn't interested or because she wasn't interest in him.