Hermod had been so involved in looking at the engine, that he didn’t notice Philotes was coming back until she put her hand on his arm. He immediately realized that she was a girl and started blushing. His free hand slipped from where he was leaning on it and smashed into the side of the engine compartment. He checked to make sure he hadn’t dented the metal before he worried about any damage to his hand. The skin on his knuckles had split open, but it didn’t seem to be bleeding too badly.
He tried to focus on what she was saying instead of on she was touching him. “I don’t care what anyone says. If you don’t have gaskets, you are going to leak oil. It’s just the nature of the stuff.” He had had his own issues with leaking oil. He remembered how freaked out one of the valkyries were the first time he had left an oil spot on the floor of the stables. He was told quite emphatically that he should not be bringing that foul liquid in to where they kept the horses. That was when he built himself a small garage to work on his bikes. It saved him a lot of trouble.
“Is there any way to add another cooling hose to the engine? Or a fan? Blow some cool air over the spark plugs and they may stay cooler.” With the motorcycle engine being more open, he didn’t have as much of an issue with overheating his spark plug. Not that his engine couldn’t get as hot as Niflheim, as he found out the first time he had burned his shin on it. It got hot, but rarely hot enough to blow the whole engine.
“A ride? In the Bugatti?” His desire to experience the speed of the car overweighed his nervousness around the lady. There was nothing he would rather do right then. “I would love a ride. Hey, then maybe I could give you one too.” It occurred to him that what he said might be taken in a very wrong way and started blushing all over again.