This week, seduction isn’t just easy words and pulsing rhythms. It’s about the mental side of it. The smarts to know what you do well and how to make it work for you. I have always called it knowing how to play chess in a room full of people playing checkers. And when you find someone who can put you into check? Well, aren’t they a pretty good mate? Because, anyone can say those flirty pick up lines that everyone has heard thousands of times, but it’s the one that stands out of the crowd that gets noticed. So, if you play smarter than the average person, this playlist might be for you too.

First, let’s respect the game for what it is. Dusty tells it well, that chase around walls and knowing your opponent well. Seeing the moves meant to stop the progress, whether in a chess game or a relationship. It’s clever chess words for relationship actions, with a pretty catchy beat too.

Checkmate – Dusty Springfield

If you asked Woods, the rock musician who ruled our seduction playlist? He’s very much both a wicked game identifier and a wicked game himself. (It feels criminal when he uses that British accent to influence a scene, like that wicked decadence layer.) Because, if you asked him, he would still seduce in the way this next song does, but he would also share the sentiments. After all, if your world was on fire and only one person was able to save you, to make you feel like you met your match… an equal that you enjoy playing the game with… Flirting and feelings can be such a fine line to cross in the spirit of playing along.

Wicked Game – Chris Isaak

Tweety is seen as the resident flirt in the books, but it’s a game. She built her persona off the needs of the business and surviving it. But her real self? Oh it’s screaming a song like this at a man who can’t hear it. Because it took one kiss and she was hooked and waiting for the next move. But the game between experienced players? They know they are not your first, maybe not your last game played. They will be the one with the memorable moves you will replay when you aren’t playing other games. That’s a different kind of smart staying power.

The Game Of Love – Santana ft. Michelle Branch

Sometimes, you get out classed in your game of the heart. In Red Letters land, there’s always at least one character who is going to see better than you are. They know more, or have a sharper eye, whatever the talent, they use it to help you out. So this next one? Besides being something Sly would spend debating the merits of at night, our resident night bar-tending host with advice to spare would help you see that yes, you are loved, even if there was a bad move played. You know, for a character not interested in having a love life? Sly is really all up in the business of yours…

She Loves You – The Beatles

I hear this and think of a character we meet later in the books, Greg. He’s smart and has a long term goals kind of plan. But he’s weird in all the right ways too. And he pays attention, to the little things, the in between the line things, all the things. His biggest asset in his chess game? Being so steady it’s practically unnerving. And the person he’s chasing? Oh it definitely messes her up, leaves her unsettled, and she returns the favor by gaining control and unsettling him too. But it comes from a place of being able to see each other in a way others can’t understand. Bonus to long time readers? Funny how Friday Fiction pops back up huh?

Queen Of Hearts – We The Kings

And another bonus because I can’t decide what I like more and could spend weeks making playlist posts… another version of Queen Of Hearts. The We The Kings version is more Greg for sure. But this version? It’s Greg if he’s ever in his confident and owning it space. And a small shout out to Queen Of Hearts, sung by Dave Edmunds, and also sung by Juice Newton. All great versions of similar titles. But I live on lyrics, and character definitions, so regular Greg is above, the Greg I’m rewriting to be stronger is the bonus song.

Queen Of Hearts – Fitz & the Tantrums