Muesli started purring and ran his raspy tongue over her hand.

“Cut it out. No licking!”

Franzi laughed. “Clearly, the cat is not a practice run for a girlfriend, or you wouldn’t have said that.”

“You’d better keep drilling holes into teeth, Sis. You’d never make it as a comedian.”

Once Franzi had stopped laughing, they made tentative plans for her sister to visit sometime in February, then said goodbye and hung up.

Susanne put the phone on the coffee table and stared at the cat on her lap. “Don’t think I’ll let you stay the night just because you’re getting all touchy-feely. I’ll have you know I’m not that kind of woman.”

A few raindrops were still falling from the dark sky, but she hardened her resolve. She’d watch one episode of Orange Is the New Black, then she’d kick the cat out. It wasn’t as if he had nowhere to go, and if she let him stay, she would only make him think he’d found a new home…and then snatch it away when she left.

The cat cuddled up against her belly, settled his chin on her arm, and closed his eyes with a contented sigh.

Okay, maybe two episodes.

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

At nine o’clock on Monday morning, Susanne slowed the BMW to a near crawl as it bumped over the cobblestoned street toward the parking garage near Paper Love.

A woman on a bicycle leaned forward over the handlebars as she pedaled in the same direction.

Hey, isn’t that Anja? She knew that bike helmet. Okay, and maybe that nice ass was familiar by now too. Susanne shook her head at herself. Since that disastrous relationship with a colleague as a consulting newbie, she had made it a point to ignore the physical attributes of the people she worked with, and now wasn’t the time to change that.

When she stepped out of the parking garage a minute later, the woman was bending over a nearby bike rack, chaining her bicycle to it. It was indeed Anja.

“Good morning, Frau L—um, Anja,” Susanne called from several steps away so she wouldn’t startle her.

Anja straightened and took her messenger bag from the basket on the back of her bike. “Oh. Good morning.”

They walked the few steps to the store together.

Susanne found herself unusually tongue-tied. Normally, she never had a problem making small talk or talking business with co-workers, but their dinner on Friday hadn’t been a business meeting. Should she just ignore it and pretend they hadn’t shared Indian food? Or try for a more friendly tone, ask what Netflix show they had decided on, or maybe thank her again for dinner?

But she didn’t want to invite too much familiarity.

Anja seemed to be equally unsure of what to say, so neither of them spoke until they reached Paper Love.