‘No ma’am.’ Charlie winked at Carrie. ‘Not me.’
Carrie dragged her gaze away from Charlie’s face and her mind off the unexpected tightening of her stomach muscles to look at the older woman. She was tall and built like a female Olympic hammer-thrower, with an ample bosom, greying hair and shrewd, assessing eyes. She looked like someone not to be messed with.
‘Angela, this is Carrie.’
Angela sniffed. ‘The suit?’
Charlie smiled at his ever-loyal receptionist. ‘The suit,’ he nodded gravely.
Carrie felt assessing eyes on her. ‘Hey, I’m not the enemy here,’ she protested.
‘Hmph!’ Angela grunted. ‘We’ll see.’
‘OK, moving right along.’ Charlie ushered Carrie down the hallway and opened the door. ‘Here’s the staffroom.’ He strode over to a row of grey lockers in the corner. ‘You can put your stuff in here.’ He tossed her a key. ‘Lock up any valuables. Some of the best petty thieves in Brisbane frequent this place.’
‘Er, right.’
Carrie looked around the room. It was a little on the used-looking side, as well. The kitchen area had chipped benches, the kettle was ancient and the fridge had long since stopped being white. But it was a decent size with a big table in the middle that sat twelve—perfect for her laptop.
‘Toilet through there.’
Carrie followed the direction of his pointing finger. He dropped his hand and strode towards a door in the back wall, which he opened.
‘Basketball court out the back.’
‘More recreation?’
Charlie laughed. ‘More recreation. Every lunch-hour I’m on the court, trying desperately to outplay a bunch of kids twenty years younger than me.’
Really? ‘And here I was thinking you didn’t have time to scratch yourself.’
Charlie sobered. ‘It’s all about trust, Carrie. I need these kids to trust me.’
‘And basketball achieves this?’
He shrugged. ‘Basketball helps.’
The movement of his shoulders drew attention to his shirt. ‘I suppose your workclothes do, too?’
‘Not many kids around here respond favourably to someone in a suit.’
The hallway door opened abruptly. ‘Hey, Charles, my man, only two more weeks and you’re back in the game.’
Carrie blinked at the intrusion on their conversation. Two more weeks? Back in what game?
‘Oh…sorry, didn’t realise you had company.’
Charlie shut his eyes and wished this day was over. At least Joe had the grace to look embarrassed. ‘Joe, this is Carrie.’
Carrie glared at him. He held up his hands. ‘Dr Carrie Douglas.’
Joe’s eyes lit up. ‘Carrie. What a lovely name.’ He stuck out his hand.
Charlie rolled his eyes. ‘The hospital administrator I was telling you about.’
‘Ah, the suit,’ Joe said as he shook Carrie’s hand.
Carrie laughed. She was getting the distinct feeling her arrival had been discussed at length. ‘Apparently.’
Charlie was inordinately irritated by Carrie’s response to his friend’s flirting. Did Joe never turn off?
‘Joe works at a posh city law practice but does some pro bono legal work for our clients. He’s here most mornings.’
‘And most lunch-hours.’ Joe winked.
‘That’s very generous of you,’ Carrie said.
Give me a break. ‘He plays basketball at lunch,’ Charlie said dryly.
‘Well, no doubt I’ll be seeing you around over the next few weeks,’ Carrie said. She placed her briefcase on the table and opened it, removing her laptop. ‘I guess I’d better get cracking. The sooner I get this done the sooner I can be out of your hair.’
They left her to it. Charlie was glad to shut the door on her and put some distance between them.
‘Man, is she a hottie or what? You see those curves? Move over, Nigella.’ Joe clapped his best friend on the back.
‘She’s a pain in the butt, that’s what she is.’
Joe laughed. ‘Relax, mate. They’re never going to shut this place down. The outcry would be huge. No one has the guts.’
Charlie sat behind his desk and sighed. ‘She’s the woman from last night, Joe. The one I was telling you about.’
‘The tie-dye chick?’
Charlie nodded miserably.
Joe stifled a grin. ‘Pinstripes, huh?’
Charlie groaned and dropped his head down onto the table, banging his forehead a few times.
‘She’s a doctor?’
Charlie looked up from his desk. ‘Apparently.’
‘Hmm, intriguing, as well.’
‘Pain in the butt,’ Charlie said, sitting up, closing his eyes and letting his head fall back against the headrest as he idly swung the swivel chair back and forth, Joe’s laughter all around him. He opened his eyes and looked at his friend. ‘Shut the door on your way out.’
Joe laughed again and departed.
Hours later Carrie was deep in figures when the door opened and a group of noisy, grungy-looking teenagers trooped through the room, eyed her suspiciously and continued to the back door and out to the basketball court. Joe winked on his way past.
‘Wanna shoot some hoops?’
Carrie looked down at her unsuitable clothes. And her stilettos. ‘Ah, thanks, better not stop.’
Charlie came through moments later. He acknowledged her with a quick nod of his head.
‘How are we looking?’ He opened his locker, reached for his medication bottles and took one tablet from each.
Carrie took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes, opening them to find him dishing out tablets. She watched him go to the sink, pour a glass of water, put the tablets in his mouth and drink the entire contents of the glass. ‘Too early to tell,’ she said, her curiosity well and truly piqued. Were they vitamins? He looked like he took care of himself. ‘It’ll take me a fortnight at least to wade through everything.’
Two weeks? Hell! He had to put up with her pinstriped suits for a fortnight? As Joe kept reminding him, he only had fourteen days to go on his enforced celibacy—and she was going to be here for every one of them? ‘That long?’
She nodded. ‘I’ve been allocated a month.’
A month!
‘It’ll be faster if I get that paperwork sooner rather than later.’
‘I’ll have it on your desk by the morning,’ Charlie said as he departed to join the others. Even if he had to stay all night.
Carrie switched her laptop off at five o’clock. She should make it home by five-thirty, in time to get Dana’s tea. She felt a pang of regret that she couldn’t be home more for her little girl. But, like it or not, she was a single mother with no support from Dana’s father. Susie, her live-in nanny, was a godsend. Dana adored her and Carrie had no idea what she’d do without her.
The ebb and flow of human traffic that had swirled around all day seemed to have diminished, she