[Worse than a sappy romance? What could be worse than that? A boring, serious book wouldn't compare anyone's eyes to flowers and that's about the only thing he can think of at the moment that would be worse.]

Of course it's innocent! [He does his best to back his claim up by looking wide-eyed and virtuous but it's a bit of a lost cause, given how obvious he's being.] You say that it's worse than a sappy love story but I find it hard to believe anything could be worse without seeing for myself. That's the only reason.

[No, he's never falling for that. Making a face Alistair tries a different tact.]

Fine, it doesn't matter. Since we're being friends now- [Haha.] Do I get to know your name?

[And hopefully it's not something common that could be in any number of stories.]