“All right.” Susanne pointed to a sign above. “It’s this way. Let’s just hope it’s not as crowded as the train.”

Yeah, let’s hope so. Her poor body wouldn’t be able to take being pressed close to Susanne and breathing in her amber-and-a-ghost-of-vanilla scent for hours.

Oh my God! They had been in hall 6.1 for less than half an hour, and Susanne’s head already felt close to exploding from all the things it had to take in.

Illuminated desktop globes rotated to her right, display cases to her left showed off fountain pens that looked as if they cost more than her BMW, and notebook decorations dangled from the ceiling above her. Never in her life had she seen so many stationery and office products in one place and certainly not the kinds that were displayed here. There were pencils smelling of lavender, pens made from recycled Nespresso pods, and scissors shaped like the Eiffel Tower.

Bright colors and the background noise of conversations surrounded them, taxing her senses.

Anja flitted from booth to booth like a bee discovering the first blooming flowers after a long winter. She touched a notebook here and a writing utensil there, as if she needed to connect with it all. Her cheeks were flushed, either from excitement or from the warm, stuffy air in the hall.

Susanne followed a step behind her so she could watch her take it all in. For her, that was much more fun than looking at stationery.

One vendor had set up walls around their booth, leaving just a narrow entrance. It looked like a tiny castle, but instead of keeping people away, it drew them in since the walls were one huge coloring picture depicting a city scene.

Anja grabbed a red crayon and colored in one of the roofs. She glanced up as if feeling Susanne’s gaze on her, and her cheeks flushed even more. “Sorry. I couldn’t resist. I know we’re here to work.”

If Susanne had been here with anyone else, she might have given them a stern nod, but she didn’t have the heart to spoil Anja’s enjoyment. She pointed at the crayon in Anja’s hand. “This is work. After all, you can’t very well recommend a certain brand of crayons to our customers if you haven’t tried them out yourself.”

“Right. So try it.”

“Uh, I don’t know. I’ve never been good at—”

“Try it.” Anja pressed a green crayon into her hand.

Susanne glanced left and right. No one paid them any attention. To her left, a guy in a business suit and a tie colored in a train. If he could do it, so could she. She grabbed a handful of crayons and painted the sail of a boat bobbing on a still-white river in rainbow colors.

Anja paused in her own roof-coloring endeavor and grinned at her.