“We should use your dating life as an example,” Anja said.

“God, no. It’s about as disastrous as Paper Love’s finances, so that’s not going to help us either.” Susanne decided to change the subject. “How about this? Imagine Uncle Norbert gives you a raise.”

“He can’t. He can barely afford to—”

“Just imagine it. Imagine you have a couple hundred euros to blow on pens and stationery stuff each month. What would be the first thing you’d buy?”

Anja stared off into space with a dreamy look. “Hmm, tough choice. Maybe a Pilot Capless, a Lamy 2000, or a Platinum 3776 Century.”

“How would you decide on one?”

“I would go into a store with a decent selection of fountain pens and try out each one. See which one fits me best.”

Okay, that wasn’t helping. “But let’s say there’s no store in Freiburg that carries all these pens.”

“There isn’t,” Anja said. “Some will probably have the Lamy, but not the others.”

“So how do you decide, then?”

“Read some reviews and look at writing samples online, maybe see if there’s a video comparing them on YouTube.”

Susanne pointed her finger at her in a you’ve-got-it gesture. “So that’s the kind of thing we need to put on our blog. Give potential customers what they are looking for, let your passion for geeky stuff shine through…and then discreetly point them to our webstore.”

Anja brightened. “No sleazy sales copy?”

“No. You can put up lists of your favorite inks, review notebooks, and do Q&As for people just getting into fountain pens.”

Anja gave her a teasing grin. “You mean things like how to avoid having a piston-filling pen seep ink all over your fingers?”

Susanne returned the grin and looked down at her hands, but of course the ink stains were long gone. “Yeah, stuff like that.”

“I can do that.” Anja clapped her hands, then paused. “But probably not all during normal opening hours.”

“Can’t Felix help out more?” Susanne asked. “I know he’s only a part-timer, but I’ve barely seen him at the store since I got here.”

“He’s preparing for his exit exams, so since the beginning of the year he’s only been working a few hours a month, mostly on Saturdays. Once he’s done in March, he’ll probably move away. Hiring someone else is probably out too, huh?”

“Oh yeah. At least for the moment.”

“That’s why Nobby needs me in the store during business hours.”