Was it just wishful thinking, or were Susanne’s hands a little unsteady too as she pulled the two parts outward? “Oh. What do you know? It’s a boat. Well, kind of.”

The sail in the middle was coming apart where she hadn’t folded it quite right.

Susanne chuckled and ran her thumb along the sail to fix it. “I think we should name this one the Titanic.”

Anja put a yellow sheet of paper in front of her. “Try another.”

This time Susanne did it without help, and Anja wasn’t sure if she should be proud of her student or disappointed that there would be no more accidental brushes of their fingers.

Once Susanne had all the steps memorized, they raced each other to see who could make a boat faster or who could make the smallest paper vessel.

“Hey, you’re cheating!” Anja threw the Titanic at her. “Don’t think I didn’t see you using two sheets of paper for the first two steps so you can finish the next one faster.”

Susanne continued folding unrepentantly. “All is fair in love and paper boat making.”

“God, you’re so competitive!” But Anja’s complaint wasn’t for real. Secretly, she liked that Susanne challenged her to do things differently and to push herself.

Finally, they had used up Anja’s entire package of craft paper. They finished their last boats and looked up at the exact same moment.

The table was covered in a fleet of colorful paper boats in various sizes.

“Wow. I think we went a little overboard.” Susanne laughed. “That’s way more than we need.” She picked up one that Anja had made before they had started racing each other and traced the skull-and-crossbones toothpick flag Anja had inserted at the top. She looked over at Anja. “Beautiful.”

Her gray eyes held such a soft expression that Anja couldn’t believe she had ever thought them cold. She wanted to thank her for the compliment, but looking into Susanne’s eyes, she couldn’t get the words out.

Susanne cleared her throat and redirected her gaze back to the boat in her hands. “You should do this in the store, you know?”

“Fold paper boats?”

“Offer a seminar on origami or that calligraphy thing you do with the brush pens. Once people see what works of art you can create, they’ll want to do it too, and they’ll buy the craft supplies they need in the store.”

“I’d love that! When can we start?”

Susanne laughed. “Let’s wait until we’ve built up our newsletter a bit. Otherwise, you might sit there with me as your only student.”

Anja wouldn’t mind at all. She bit her lip so the words wouldn’t slip out. “Pick one.” She gestured at the pile of boats and chose a purple one with a smiley face on the sail for herself.

“Why?”