Page 24 of The Warrior
“That way, but it all happened so fast. And then I learned he had stolen the jacket he was wearing. I’m ashamed I didn’t react to his scar or his height. That and his broad shoulders should have alerted me from the beginning.” Her tone was apologetic. “It’s just that I’ve never met an Nman and I didn’t expect one to turn up here in New Munich.”
“It’s fine. We’ll find him and make sure he’s taken back home,” I assured her before we left.
Not knowing what else to do, Hans and I flew over the area hoping to spot Jonathan from the air. “Hey, Hans, would you mind helping? You’re not even looking.”
“He could have gone anywhere,” Hans pointed out. “Besides, it’s hard to tell people’s height from the air, and we’re too high up to see his scar.” He smacked his tongue and lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “We’ll have to wait for a new lead on him and when we get it, I was thinking we could use a secret weapon against him.”
“What kind of weapon?”
“I’m talking about the flirting thing.” Hans pointed to the files projected above the wristband. “I’ve been studying the ancient art of flirting and I think I could teach you.”
“Excuse me?”
“You could lure Jonathan in with flirting and when you have him distracted, I could come in and catch him.”
I thought about it. “It’s not a bad idea. We know he likes tits.”
Hans lowered his brows. “We would say breasts here.”
My lips pursed up. “Yeah, well, I’m a Northlander.”
Hans lifted a finger. “Ah, but Jonathan can’t know that. You’ll have to pretend to be a sweet Motlander.”
I sat through twenty minutes of Hans teaching me how to flirt.
“According to my research, it’s all about seduction. There are certain facial expressions that draw men in. Like this one.” Hans hooded his eyes, pursed his lips, and jerked his nose up and down in some comical movement.
“What are you doing? You look like you’re about to sneeze.”
“I learned it from a video. You might want to slide your tongue over your lower lip like this too.” Hans looked ridiculous and so did I when I tried to imitate him.
“How can this possibly be sexy?” I asked when Hans explained about pointing my chin toward my shoulder and batting my eyelids.
“Just give it a chance.”
“He’s going to think I have an eye infection and a sore neck or something. Nobody acts this way.”
“Do you want to help catch the Nmen or not?”
“Yes.”
“Then practice flirting. Look, it’s not that hard.” Hans showed me all the techniques he had learned, and while I practiced the unnatural facial expressions he continued to research. “Here’s an old article that describes how people used to flirt in pre-war times. Listen to this: ‘The best flirting was conducted through body language and not verbal communication. Females would giggle and smile, twirl their ponytails, give the guy a “come-hither” look, and drop their school books.’”
“What’s a come-hither look? And why was it considered sexy to be clumsy?” I asked with confusion.
Hans frowned. “I’m not sure. Let’s see if there’s something else we can use. Oh, here’s one with bullet points.”
“What does it say?” I leaned closer.
“It says men found it attractive when a woman would circle the rim of her glass of wine, twirl a pen, massage her shoulder or neck, continuously cross and uncross her legs, flip her hair, tuck it behind her ears, play with her bangs, or whip strands of her hair in circles.”
“Huh.” I raised my eyebrows. “Men were strange back then.”
“Uh-huh.” Hans kept reading.
Magni would think I was disturbed if I behaved like that. A woman who giggled, and couldn’t sit still but had to play with her glass and pen, while crossing and uncrossing her legs and touching her hair constantly, would be considered strange today.
I scrunched my face. “That flirting stuff doesn’t sound attractive at all.”
