“Because as you keep saying: how can we recommend our products to our customers if we haven’t tested them out? We’re going to float them on the lake.”

“Lake?” Susanne repeated slowly.

“Yes. It’s not even a ten-minute walk from here, and it’ll be nice to get some fresh air after being stuck inside all day.”

“You want us—two mature adults—to float paper boats in public on a Saturday afternoon, when there’ll be plenty of people at the lake?”

Anja smiled. “Too chicken to do it?”

Susanne huffed, stood, and grabbed the boat she had dubbed the Titanic. “Come on. The one whose boat sinks first buys dinner.”

It was after nine and the sun had long since gone down by the time Susanne finally got up from Anja’s sofa. When Susanne’s paper boat had been kidnapped by a curious swan, Anja had laughed and declared herself the winner of their bet, so Susanne had paid for takeout from Kashmir. They had taken the food back to Anja’s apartment, and the time had flown by while they ate, decorated their boats, and talked.

Anja followed her into the hall and stood watching while Susanne put on her coat.

Susanne opened the door but made no move to step through it. They had spent most of the day working, so why did this feel like saying goodbye after a date? An amazing date even. She couldn’t remember when she had last had so much fun and talked so openly.

“Thanks for coming over.” Anja shuffled her slippered feet. “I had a great time.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Anja grinned. “Even when your boat got swan-napped?”

The term made Susanne laugh. “Maybe I shouldn’t have named it Titanic. With a name like that, it was doomed from the start. But at least now we can say even swans love our paper products, right?”

“Right.”

They smiled at each other. Seconds ticked by, then Susanne gave herself a mental kick before she could get sucked in by the warm glow in Anja’s brown eyes. “Well then, I’d better go.”

“Yeah.”

Susanne hesitated. Should she hug her? They had decided to be friends, and that’s how friends said goodbye, right? But was it really a good idea to—?

Before she could finish her internal discussion, Anja stepped forward, right into her personal space, and wrapped her arms around her in a quick hug.

Anja was several centimeters shorter, her forehead coming up to Susanne’s mouth, and she hugged with the same mix of carefulness and abandon that she’d put into making the paper boats.

Susanne enfolded her into her arms. When she felt Anja’s warmth, her body pressed a little closer without her conscious decision. Her eyes fell closed of their own accord. How could a simple hug feel so amazing?

Then, before Susanne was ready, Anja let go and stepped back.

Susanne quickly opened her eyes.