‘That’s right: They don’t like nice men. If they did, Caroline would have got together with Daniel a long time ago. I’ll bet you he is head over heels in love with Caroline, and she likes him too. But he’s simply too nice to her – much too nice – so nothing’s going to come of it. Thomas, on the other hand, basically did everything right. Well, almost everything. Mark my words: if you are too nice, other people – especially women – don’t take you seriously. My decades of studies tell me that women don’t really go for nice guys.’

‘You mean women go out of their way to pick nasty guys like Thomas?’

‘Exactly.’

‘But that’s terrible.’

‘The fact is that if Daniel or any other guy wants to wind up with Caroline, he has to treat her worse.’

I’m speechless – and bewildered. That can’t be true! It would ultimately mean that women like to be treated badly. Mr Beck simply has to be wrong, or else my prognosis for Caroline’s future love life is quite grim. On the other hand, Beck is onto something in one respect: Daniel is quite nice, and I also get the feeling that he really likes Caroline, so everything ought to be fine and dandy. There’s got to be a reason why Caroline fell in love with Thomas instead of Daniel.

Beck and I sit next to each other in silence for a while. I need some time to take in what I’ve just heard. My lovely plan…I lay my head sadly on my front paws.

‘Now that I really think about it,’ Beck eventually says, ‘your idea may not be so dumb after all. It’s an established fact that we animals have a far better understanding of humans than they have of themselves. Maybe we really could spare Caroline from the next disaster. We just have to protect her from her own taste in men.’

‘And how are we going to pull that off? You just said yourself that that probably won’t work.’

‘Yeah,’ Beck says, and cocks his head, ‘that’ll be the interesting part of our new assignment.’

chapter eleven

‘Let’s go! This is the ideal hunting ground!’

Beck looks at me doubtfully. ‘How did you get that idea?’

‘Nina said that this place is swarming with princes.’

‘She did?’

‘Well, not in so many words. But something to that effect. OK, maybe she didn’t say “swarming”, but in any case there are some of them running around here.’

We’re standing in the park looking for men. We’re not quite sure what we’re going to do once we’ve found one, but we’ve decided to let the situation be our guide, and we’ll improvise from there. Beck’s pessimistic attitude is really bugging me today. He thinks a rainy day is not a good time to find a man in the park. But we do have to get down to business, because Caroline has been home for three days now. She still doesn’t exactly look happy, but at least she’s back to work. I take that as a sign that she’s on the mend.