Galahad considers. In his romances, friends -- or people who are destined to become lovers, often -- will pretend to be entangled in order to arouse the passions of the people whose attention they would like, but kissing Magnus seems unlikely to interest Claudius.

As he told Kade, he doesn't read modern romances -- there's too much he doesn't understand in them. At least the historical romances, while they're still in his future, are familiar enough to follow. But he did read a few of the modern ones before he realized he didn't like them, and he reproduces a page in his mind, crisp black text printed on white paper.

"Wet t-shirt contest?"