He handed me the second.
“Carol.” I raised my brows at that one. Carol was our office administrator and supposed to start annual leave today. “Her cruise ship leaves in an hour. She wants you to call before then. She’s worried about not getting reception once they leave.”
He handed me the next one, bristling with irritation. “Morgan. She wouldn’t say what it was in relation to despite me asking her. Twice.” I held my hand out for the message, raising my brows when he didn’t let go. “Who’s Morgan?”
I shrugged. “She was at the Florence Bar on Friday night.”
Tim sniffed as my phone beeped an incoming message. I picked it up, unable to hide the grin when I saw Grace on the screen. Opening the text, I read it silently, my grin turning into a chuckle.
You can shove your apology up your ass.
I quickly hit reply and tapped out a new message. Ouch. Sounds kinky. Got you a new phone.
“Who’s Grace?” Tim asked, peering at my phone. “And why’s she talking about your ass?” His eyes went wide. “Wait! This isn’t Grace Grace, is it? Henry’s Grace? His sister, Grace?”
I tossed my phone back on the desk and snatched the message from Morgan out of Tim’s hand, replying, “Yep,” as I read his neat scrawl. Putting the message aside, I went back to my laptop. “Anything else?” I asked Tim’s hovering form.
“No, no.” He backed away. “I’ve got some calls to make. Those reports from Friday are in the files on your desk.”
“Oh, Tim?” I called out before he disappeared. “Can you get Frank to find the contact information for Helen who used to work at Bankstown Police? Tell him she’s working airport security over at Sydney Domestic now.” Frank ran our control room upstairs and usually handled all our operations behind the scenes as well as ferreting out information that wasn’t public record. He was good at finding out what you needed to know without asking questions.
“Helen?” His voice sounded faint. “You’ve had a busy weekend.”
I schooled my features, not wishing to instigate one of those office gossip sessions Tim excelled in. Having my balls waxed was less painful. “And now it’s Monday, and some of us have work to do,” I pointed out.
He left as another message from Grace beeped through on my phone.
You can stick the new phone in the same place as your apology.
My lips curved as I sent off another reply. Do you have a fetish for my ass? You keep mentioning it.
Despite Henry’s warning, Grace was proving addictive. When no immediate response came through, I tried putting her from my mind and focused on working through the draft reports Tim left for me. I stopped after an hour, my growling stomach reminding me I hadn’t eaten breakfast. Sitting back in my chair, I stretched before picking up my phone and checking the screen. Another message sat there from Grace. Maybe because you’re always talking out of it.
I laughed out loud and Tim appeared in my office. “Having fun on a Monday, Casey? That’s not like you.” His eyes fell to the phone in my hand and his brows raised inquisitively. “Grace again?”
“Need something, Tim?” I asked mildly as I tapped out another message. Seems there’s too much talk about my ass and not enough about yours.
“It’s lunch time,” he announced as I put my phone back on the desk. “Want me to grab you something?”
Mondays were officially declared ‘Fast Food Mondays’ in our office. With Jared not working, it was the safest day of the week to indulge without getting chewed out, no pun intended. The man was a health food Nazi and I didn’t need someone telling me what I could and couldn’t eat. I might’ve appreciated the whole my body is a temple thing, but too much clean living was bad for your health.
“Great. Can you get me—”
“A burger with the works and a brownie,” he replied, fussing at his hair so it sat just so. At my raised eyebrows, he added, “You went for a surf this morning, right? That always makes you hungry, but you went shopping straight after, which means you probably didn’t take the time to eat. You’ve also got that little fucking hell, it’s Monday furrow in your brow going on, which means you need sugar if I’m going to put up with you this afternoon.”
As soon as Tim left the office, I picked up the phone and dialled Morgan. She answered after several rings, sounding breathless.
“Bad time?” I asked, hearing loud voices in the background.
“No! Just … hang on.” The sound of footsteps came through the line, followed by muffled quiet before she came back on the line. “I’m at work and it’s a little crazy today.”