If that was what she was doing, she was wasting her time. No way would Susanne let herself be manipulated like that. She was here to work, not to flirt with an employee. If need be, she would simply stay away from Frau Lamm and keep their interaction to a minimum.

There. Problem solved. She nodded to herself.

“Yes, it is,” Uncle Norbert said.

“Huh?” Susanne had nearly forgotten that she’d been talking to him.

“A world of its own. But don’t worry. You’ll get the hang of it.” He patted her arm. “And I’ve got just the thing to help you.” With a triumphant “ta-da,” he pulled something from his shirt pocket and dangled it beneath her nose.

“Paperworld,” Susanne read the print on one of the two pieces of paper. “Isn’t that the name of the pen magazine Anja, um, Frau Lamm likes to read?”

Uncle Norbert chuckled. “That’s Pen World. This is Paperworld. It’s the world’s biggest stationery and office supply trade fair. And I just got two free tickets. I thought you and Anja could go. Maybe you’ll come back with some great ideas for how to turn the store around.”

Susanne stared at the two tickets in his hand. “It’s not in Freiburg, is it?”

“No. It’s in Frankfurt at the end of the month.”

That meant a two-hour drive each way at the very least. Great. Not even a minute ago, she had resolved to keep her interaction with Frau Lamm to a minimum, and here he was, suggesting that they be joined at the hip for an entire day—or possibly even an overnight stay.

“So?” He held up the tickets again. “What do you think?”

“Stationery road trip. Yay.” She hoped he’d put her unenthusiastic tone down to her lack of passion for stationery. At least she had about two weeks before the fair to get her head back into the game.

“If you’d rather have it in another color, I can order whatever we don’t have in stock.” Anja watched the customer run his hands over the notebook the same way she had just caressed the leather-bound journal.

Okay, maybe not the exact same way.

What on earth had she been thinking? It had started out as an attempt to show Susanne the appeal of notebooks but had then snowballed into something much more…sensual. She definitely hadn’t planned on doing that. Susanne wasn’t a friend and certainly not someone she could joke around and flirt with like that! Even if she hadn’t tried to get her fired from her dream job just a few hours ago, she so wasn’t Anja’s type.