As they walked to the stairs leading up to the crow’s nest, Anja’s grip on her hand tightened until it was almost painful, but Susanne didn’t complain. She put one foot onto the first step and looked at Anja. “Ready?”

Instead of an answer, Anja climbed the first step too and then kept going. She mumbled something with every step they took.

“Are you counting the steps?” Susanne asked.

Anja stared straight ahead. “No, just telling myself how crazy I am.” A tremor ran through her voice.

“You’re not crazy. You’re brave.”

“Debatable.” Anja’s steps slowed, and she stared down at the ground thirty-five meters below. She became even paler, if that was possible. “Oh God, that’s really high.”

Susanne wanted to take her into her arms and wrap her in a bubble of safety. But since that was not a bright idea, she searched for something to say that would distract her. She asked the first thing that popped into her mind. “That person you kissed in the movie theater…was it a boy or a girl?” As soon as she’d said it, she wanted to take it back.

At least it got Anja to look up, away from the ground, to stare at her. “Uh, what?”

“Forget it, okay? I was just trying to distract you. And it worked. Look where we are.”

Anja looked around as if only now realizing they had reached the crow’s nest. The tiny platform was shaped like a half-circle and was just big enough for two people if they didn’t mind being close—and Susanne didn’t mind at all.

They huddled together, with the wind tugging on their coats and hair. Up here, she could sense the slight swaying of the steel tower beneath her feet.

Susanne told herself that it was the incredible three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view, not Anja’s proximity, that took her breath away.

Below her, the spire of the cathedral soared above the gables of surrounding buildings. She could make out the Rhine Valley and the Vosges in the distance, while the hills and mountains of the Black Forest framed them from the other side.

“Wow,” Anja murmured next to her. “My knees feel like overcooked spaghetti, and my stomach has relocated to my throat, but this might actually be worth it.”

“Yeah.” Susanne chuckled. “I feel like spreading my arms wide and shouting, ‘I’m the king of the world.’”

“Queen. And it was a boy.”

“What?”

They faced each other. The wind had put some color back into Anja’s cheeks.

“The person I kissed in the movie theater. It was a boy.”

“Oh. And you didn’t like it?” Susanne couldn’t keep herself from asking. Her feeble attempts at staying professional had been doomed the moment she had agreed to spend part of the weekend with Anja.