With a low growl, she whirled around. She so wasn’t in the mood for small talk with some stranger.

Instead, Anja stood in front of her, looking much too bright-eyed for this early hour on a weekend. “Good morning. Here, I already got you one.” She held out a huge paper cup with a lid.

Susanne’s grumpiness instantly faded. She practically lunged for the cup, making Anja laugh. “Thank you.” She lifted the lid and peeked inside.

“Black, no sugar, right?” Anja said.

“Mm-hmm.” Susanne took a big gulp, not caring that the coffee was almost too hot to drink. “How did you know?”

“Same way you did. I asked the lady from the coffee shop across from Paper Love.”

They walked farther down the platform and sipped their respective coffees while they waited for their train.

Anja bounced on the balls of her feet a few times, and Susanne sensed that it wasn’t because she was cold. An excited anticipation emanated from Anja. She seemed like a kid about to embark on a school excursion. Under different circumstances, it might have gotten on Susanne’s nerves, but now she had to smile. Maybe the coffee offering had gentled her mood.

It wasn’t long before the ICE to Frankfurt arrived. They boarded the high-speed train and took their reserved seats next to each other.

Anja put down her backpack, took off her coat, and leaned past Susanne, who had taken the window seat, to hang up her coat on a hook.

Susanne pressed back into her seat to make more room for her—and froze. Suddenly, she felt wide-awake, even though she knew the effect of the caffeine couldn’t have set in yet. She had gotten used to seeing Anja in jeans and simple cotton blouses at work, but today, Anja’s coat had covered an entirely different outfit. A formfitting, cream-colored blouse was tucked into a beige corduroy skirt. Susanne’s gaze trailed over a short, chocolate-colored blazer that emphasized Anja’s slim waist and matched the color of her eyes. As Anja sank into her seat, the skirt rode up a little, revealing a bit of pantyhose between the hem and the top of her knee-high, brown boots.

Oh God, those boots. Okay, it wasn’t really the boots she was looking at; it was Anja’s legs, toned from riding her bicycle to work every day. Susanne’s mouth went dry, so she took another sip of coffee. If she had ever thought of Anja as the conservative type, that opinion flew right out of the window. It wasn’t that her outfit was daring or overly revealing, but something about it was just…wow. This was going to be a long day.