Flirt

by Laurell K. Hamilton

Chapter 3

  "You keep saying women," Micah said. "I thought you were training up some of the male dancers, too. "

  "We are, but most of them came from Guilty Pleasures, and Jean-Claude always made us put on a real show there. The other wereanimals aren't arguing about it, either. "

  "They know if they don't do what they're told, it will get back to the head of their animal group," Micah said.

  Jason smiled at him. "Yeah, Caleb is sooo not happy that you made him move from waiter at Guilty Pleasures to dancer, O Leopard King. "

  Micah gave a small frown. "I didn't make him change jobs; I gave him a choice of jobs that would make him more money, because he was complaining he needed more money. I'm his Nimir-Raj; I helped him brainstorm some alternate jobs. He thought stripping was the lesser evil. "

  "We got tired of him bitching," I said.

  Jason grinned. "He does like to bitch, O Leopard Queen. "

  I was queen to Micah's king, but I was still technically human and didn't change shapes. Blood tests had proved I carried several different kinds of lycanthropy inside me, but I stayed human. The lycanthropy virus protected its host from all disease, which should have meant that I couldn't catch a second kind once I caught the first, but my body seemed able to collect them. I was one of about forty people worldwide who had managed to be carriers of multi-strains but not shapeshift. We'd been the inspiration for the lycanthropy vaccine that had begun to be used worldwide. My bit for medical science. With every new animal, there was the potential that I could call that animal to me like a vampire. I was really trying not to do that again.

  I turned to Nathaniel. "You recognized Bennington 's wife, didn't you?"

  He nodded, face serious. "She was a fur-fucker. "

  "A what?" I asked.

  Jason explained, "They're like badge bunnies for cops, or group ies for bands. They just want to fuck us because we turn furry once a month. "

  Nathaniel said, "She had money so she got private dances, but she was like most of the fur-fuckers. She seemed to think that we were animals and wouldn't be able to resist our baser urges, as if because we have a beast inside us we can't say no, or don't have the right to say no. "

  Jason frowned. "I used to do it after work, never for money, but just because a woman was hot, and she wanted me. But after a while it was as if they'd fuck the tiger in the zoo if it wouldn't eat them, and they didn't think of me as much different from that. "

  I hugged Nathaniel with one arm and put my other arm past to draw Jason into the hug. "I'm sorry that people are so stupid. "

  Micah leaned in at my back, and we did our best to do a group hug in the booth, which didn't quite work, but still got the job done. Nathaniel and Jason were smiling when we pulled back, and that was the goal.

  "Did anyone at the club cross the line with the wife?" I asked.

  Nathaniel shook his head. "Jean-Claude's really strict about that, so no. There are a few dancers and bouncers that will do the fur-fuckers, but she wanted one of us to do it in the private dance area right then. That was her fantasy and she wasn't settling for fucking one of us later in a hotel room, or so she informed Graham, after he offered to meet her after work. "

  Graham was a werewolf and a bouncer, not a dancer, but he was cute enough.

  "A blow to his ego," I said.

  "Not as bad a hit as the fact that you keep refusing him," Jason said, and he grinned, knowing it was a sore point with me.

  I frowned at him, and then got back on point. "Did she get kicked out?"

  Nathaniel nodded. "Security had to escort her outside, because she wouldn't take no from us, and she just kept trying to up the price as if we were whores. "

  I leaned my face in against his, not sure what to say, because when I'd first met him he had been a prostitute. He'd been a high-priced one catering to an elite clientele, but in the end there had been too many clients who wanted him because a wereanimal could take a lot of damage and still survive. It was too much rough trade, even for someone who enjoyed pain the way Nathaniel did.

  "A lot of people think that about strippers," Jason said.

  "I know," Nathaniel said.

  "I thought we were supposed to cheer up Anita," Micah said, "not be the gloomy ones. "

  They both looked up, exchanged a glance, then Jason grinned at me. "I think we promised to flirt outrageously. "

  "You said that, and just assumed I'd go along," Nathaniel said.

  Jason aimed the grin at him. "Won't you?"

  Nathaniel smiled, shrugged, and nodded.

  "Then let the flirting begin," Jason said.

  I was a little nervous about what outrageously might mean, but I'd take silly and a little embarrassing over them being sad. But as usual the flirting confused me.

  When Jason had said he and Nathaniel would flirt outrageously, I thought they'd meant flirting within our little group, but when the waiter came to our booth, the plans changed. The waiter started out very sure of himself: "I'm sorry that no one's been to your table. " I was sitting beside Nathaniel, so I got a very good look at what happened to the waiter's face when Nathaniel looked up at him. That's all he did, just raise that face, and those eyes, and stare directly at the waiter-who went from reasonably intelligent and competent to stammering. No, I'm not joking. The waiter began to stammer, a lot of uhs, and hmms, and words not in their right order. Nathaniel, having noticed the reaction, smiled at him, which didn't help at all. The waiter finally, in desperation, said, "Drinks, drinks, can I bring you drinks?"

  "Yes," I said, we all said, "drinks would be good. "

  He took our drink orders while staring at Nathaniel, which meant he didn't write anything down, which led me to wonder if we'd actually get what we ordered, but we were all merciful and let him flee the table for somewhere safe from Nathaniel's charm.

  Jason turned to me and Micah. "Can he flirt with the waiter?"

  "No," we said in unison. Micah said, "Please don't, because we'll either get great service or terrible service, and we need to get Anita back to work. "

  Then, of course, it being me, I felt compelled to ask, "Do you want to flirt with the waiter?"

  "Before I was with the two of you I would have, but I know it makes you uncomfortable. "

  "Which is why I asked for him," Jason said.

  I looked at Micah, and we had a moment of what I thought was understanding, but being the girl I couldn't trust to silent communication. I had to say something. "Do we take some of the fun out of things for Nathaniel?"

  Nathaniel answered, "No, I would never trade being able to flirt with strangers for living at our house with you guys. When I could flirt with whoever I wanted, I wasn't very happy; now I'm happy. "

  I kissed him, gently, since I was wearing bright lipstick. His mouth came away with a faint hint of red. Jason said, "Waiter is coming this way; if you want to play with him, you can't be hanging all over Nathaniel. "

  I didn't argue with Jason, because if anyone knew the rules for teasing people, it was him. By the time the waiter got to us, we were just sitting there. He had our drink orders correct, which meant we might get good service after all.

  He took our orders while looking at Nathaniel as if the rest of us didn't exist. He spoke to us, even wrote down what we said, but he never looked at anyone else. Nathaniel didn't do anything but just looked pleasantly at him. It had taken me a while to figure out that was flirting, too. Just letting another human being know that you "see" them is perhaps the most important part of flirting. Nathaniel had taught me that not all flirting is about sex. You flirt, in a way, with friends, family, even a job interviewer; you want them to like you, or you want them to know that you are listening, that you care. I'd learned that I wasn't very good at letting anyone know I liked them unless I was trying to date them. Learning to flirt in a more broad sense had made me a more pleasant person all around, but then it would have been hard to be less pleasant.

 
There was silence around the table, and I realized that everyone was looking at me; finally even the waiter looked. I blinked up at him. "I'm sorry, what?"

  "What do you want to order?" Micah said.

  I had no idea. "I'm sorry, but I don't know what I want. "

  The waiter's eyes flicked back to Nathaniel, then at me, as he said, "I'll give you a few minutes, then check back. "

  I smiled at him encouragingly. He smiled, gave me a brilliant smile that lit his face up. I think it was only because I was sitting close enough to Nathaniel so he could flash that smile at both of us, but I smiled back, and I noticed that he was tanned and his