Susanne rubbed her back. “No, you’re not. How about I take you out to dinner at Kashmir to help distract you? We could run by your apartment on the way back and pick up some clean clothes for you.” She lowered her voice. “That is if you want to stay over again.”

Anja didn’t even try to play it cool. She gave Susanne a warm smile. “I’d really like that. Could we ask Miri if she wants to come? I don’t want her to think I’ve forgotten all about her now that I have you.”

“Sure.” Susanne squeezed her softly before letting go and turning toward her uncle. “Want to come too? If you don’t like Indian, we could go someplace else.”

Nobby laughed and raised both hands. “Oh no. I’m sure you will enjoy yourselves much more without me. Besides, sitting for any length of time is still a pain in the ass—literally.”

He shooed them out of the store with a promise to be careful on his way home.

Anja threw one last glance back over her shoulder to the place in the glass case where the Meisterstück Solitaire had been, then she forgot all about pens for the rest of the evening.

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Ten days later, Anja unlocked the door to her apartment with the same feeling she sometimes got when returning from a long vacation—a vacation she hadn’t wanted to end. In the nearly two weeks since she and Susanne had made love for the first time, they had slept apart only a handful of times.

Why did today of all days have to be the one that Susanne had other plans? She had hurried off right after work, saying she had to take care of something important.

Well, Anja couldn’t complain since she hadn’t told her it was her birthday. Miri hadn’t called either, and even Nobby seemed to have forgotten about her birthday. She couldn’t blame him. He was still recovering from his accident, and with the new website and a lot of new products launching today, they had run around like chickens with their heads cut off, too busy to think of anything but work.

Sighing, she closed the door behind her and kicked off her shoes.

When she opened the door to the bedroom/living room, a chorus of “surprise!” greeted her.

Anja clutched her chest. “God, you guys! What are you doing here?”

“Throwing you a surprise party! Isn’t it obvious?” Miri blew a pink-dotted party horn.

Her ears ringing, Anja stood in the doorway and stared. Her small apartment was full of balloons—probably Miri’s idea—and people. Nobby was there with his not-quite girlfriend; Franzi had come all the way from Berlin, and her favorite neighbors had dropped by.