Artemis laughed, "Right. That would make you the..." He thought a moment, "Seventh person to offer. But would you follow through?" He gave Ken a wry smile. All of them, except for Farfarello, have refused or fallen through. So which seems to be the better offer here?

"And you never know--he could be teaching me something pertinent to my size and strength capabilities. Whatever it is, I'm only spending the first hour of the night with him. An hour is better than the whole night, correct?"

He was trying to be encouraging--he really was. Ken was a nice person, but Artemis was getting tired of defending his decisions. He was an intelligent person--he knew what he was doing. It wasn't as though he'd taken the offer without fully understanding the possibilities.