“Actually, it was an automatic autoclave. Not that it matters. I still want to help out. So fifty-fifty?”

Susanne groaned. “Why do I have to have such a stubborn sister?”

“Genetics, dear womb mate.” Franzi winked at her. “Come on. Just say yes. You’ll have a much easier time selling this idea to Uncle Nobby if we’re sharing the costs.”

That much was true. “All right, you little pest.”

They finished the rest of their meal in companionable silence. Susanne was too deep in thought to say much. Somehow the unshakable rules and convictions she had lived her life by had been turned upside down within just three weeks. Less than a month ago, she had assumed her uncle was a sentimental fool for wanting to hold on to his little store, and now she was pumping her own personal money—and that of her sister—into it, with no guarantee that they’d get even one cent of it back.

This city was really messing with her head.

An unfamiliar noise ripped Susanne from the middle of a dream. She mumbled a protest. “Mmpf, Anja?”

Then the cobwebs of sleep receded. Of course it couldn’t be Anja, even though faint impressions of the dream she’d had still lingered. She and Anja had climbed a giant fountain pen, walking hand in hand as they had today, and when they had reached the golden nib at the top, she had pulled Anja close, threaded her fingers through her windblown hair, and—

And then nothing. Just as they had been about to kiss, something had woken her. She curled her empty hand into a fist. God, it had felt so real. She could still feel Anja’s hand in hers and her breath on her lips.

Yawning, she mentally cursed whatever had woken her. She couldn’t get involved with Anja in the waking world, so at least getting to kiss her while asleep would have been nice.

But her sister’s bad timing had ruined that. Had Franzi gone to the bathroom, and the unfamiliar noises of another person in the apartment had woken her up?

Susanne opened her eyes, now fully awake.

The room was dark except for the faint glow of her alarm clock, which revealed that it was three o’clock. She had left her door ajar in case her sister needed something, but in the hall leading to the living room, where Franzi slept on the new couch, everything was quiet.

The same couldn’t be said about her bedroom.

A rhythmic rrrrr-rrr-rrrrr sounded right next to her.

“What the…?” Susanne flicked on the lamp on the bedside table. Light flared on, blinding her for a moment.

Once her eyes had adjusted to the sudden brightness, she could make out the cat that was perched in a sphinxlike position on the mattress right next to her.

“Muesli! What the hell are you doing here?”

The cat continued to purr.