"How cruel of you to bring up something that will never happen," he says, voice flippant. As if Astarion would ever be so foolish as to fall in love. Nonsense. "I said I would go with whatever you decide with this quest, but if we reach her and you still flounder I won't hesitate to step in."

Lesson learned, if the request requires matters that would make a bleeding heart waffle between the choices, he will just have to call dibs on making the decision first.