Determined, Anja slid a turquoise sheet of paper in front of her. “Then I’ll teach you how to do it.” She ignored Susanne’s grumbling and took the pink sheet for herself. “First, you fold your sheet in half. Then you fold the top corners to meet in the middle.”

She hadn’t made a paper boat in a very long time, but muscle memory kicked in. Apparently, her fingers remembered the steps. After each one, she waited until Susanne had copied what she was doing. “Now fold up the flaps at the bottom and tuck in the corners.”

Susanne did as instructed. “I thought we were making a boat, not a party hat.”

“Patience, young Padawan.” Anja playfully poked her with one corner of her own party hat before taking it and opening it up. “Pull the two sides of the hat apart in the middle and push the corners together so that it forms a square.”

“Jeez, I’ve put together Ikea furniture that was easier to assemble,” Susanne mumbled.

“You have Ikea furniture? You?”

“What, you think I have only artisan solid wood furniture, where a single bedside table costs a thousand euros?”

“Um…” Truth be told, Anja had assumed something like that.

“I splurged on a really nice couch and a massive desk for my apartment in Berlin, but other than that, my furniture is mix and match. A friend of mine loves finding furniture at flea markets and then restoring the various pieces. She even had me help with my dresser and a bookcase.”

Anja imagined Susanne lovingly running a sanding block or a paintbrush along a piece of wood but quickly banished the image from her mind. “And yet you’re complaining about a simple paper boat? Keep going, woman!”

“Yeah, yeah. What’s next?”

“You fold up the bottom points on each side.” She held up her piece of paper, which now was a triangle again. “And then you repeat what you did earlier, pulling the sides apart in the middle to make it a square again.”

Susanne struggled a little. The cute line between her brows made a reappearance. Finally, she held up her own square. “Got it.”

“Now comes the tricky step. You pull the top parts outward.”

“Which parts?”

“This and this.” When Anja reached over to show her, their fingers brushed.

Both froze.

Warmth spread from Anja’s fingers to the rest of her body. God, how could an innocent little touch like this affect her so much? It took all her self-control not to caress Susanne’s fingers, trail her hand up her wrist to the soft skin on the inside of her forearm, and then…

She swallowed heavily. Stop torturing yourself. With a trembling finger, she tapped the two points at the top of the square, this time careful not to brush Susanne’s hand again. “These two.” Her voice was husky.