Romance... with a twist Story Excerpt: “Chloe, don't be frightened,” the whatever-it-was-who-had-once-been-her-horse said to her, and Chloe wasn't so far gone into shock that she didn't recognize that the words the horse-man had just said were perhaps the stupidest thing she'd ever heard her entire life, bar-none. “Frightened?!” her mouth asked, before her brain could stop it. “Now what on Earth could possibly be frightening about walking into my barn to find that my horse has suddenly been photoshopped into an extra for Clash of the Titans?! On no, I'm not frightened... I'm wondering if I'm even awake or stuck in one of those vivid dreams that just seem really, really real. What even are you?! And what have you done to Max?! Is this one of those practical joke prank shows? Am I being Punk'd?” “I assure you, I'm very real, and for the time being I am a centaur, though I hope it won’t last very long,” Max the human-horse said, putting his palms up in a sign of universal peace, or surrender, or whatever palms-held-up-in-the-air-as-if-to-ward-off-an-attack meant. Chloe didn't much care. What she did care about was that her horse was talking to her. In English. And there was the whole sporting-a-human-head-and-torso thing. She cared about that, too. How on Earth would she explain that to her veterinarian? Maybe the doctor was right. Maybe she did have to lay off the caffeine.