wooing! Wooer.

She's a cop. The guy she's saying it to might say "woo" while doing that very thing - but he would probably have to get her drunk first, or he'd end up crawling around on the floor trying to find her eyes for her after they rolled right out of her head.

Buttering him up. Breaking him down. Wearing him down. Getting under his skin. Infecting him. Tiring him until he says yes.

Context is "The conversation this morning out here on the beach - is that really all we're going to have of *courtship*? Because it seems to have compressed about six months of dating into three minutes, and I think I need the hearts and flowers." Spoiler font to keep ita_! from wanting to reach through the intertubes and strangle me.

The best alternate phrasing I have come up with is "the preliminaries to the relationship" and I like that only slightly better.

ETA: Thanks, by the way, for trying.

WindSparrow, why not flirting ?

Or rework the sentence so it's something like, "Is that really all we're going to do of dating? Because we skipped a bunch of steps, and I think I need the hearts and flowers."

"dating" seems the simplest, most common place term. Even though it repeats immediately.

Or, shorten it to "preliminaries".

lengthen it to "the getting to know each other phase". I suppose it depends on the personality. Can they handle large awkward phrases? If they're kind of Data-like, shit like "acquaintance familiarization" (oh, how I make me larf) could-- no, that sucks.

Use "dating" first and replace the second one?

Amy, your second suggestion is brilliant. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Juliebird, just thinking of anyone other than Data saying "acquaintance familiarization" is a heck of a lot of fun. I'm going to have to work it into conversation just to see the looks on people's faces.

Hey, it's what I do. You're welcome!

Windsparrow, too kind. The second I saw Amy's suggestion I knew I had no hope of being a bad influence!

I rephrased Amy's idea a bit: "Is that really the nearest thing to dating we are going to do? Because we skipped a bunch of steps. It compressed about six months down to three minutes, and I think I need the hearts and flowers." So I'm only making off with the idea, not the words.

That's perfect!