Tim answered the ringing phone without looking at the number. At this time of night, chances were good that it was work.
To his delight, it was his grad-student daughter.
'Hi Katie! How's it goi...'
He didn't get to finish the question before Katie started venting her frustration. Loudly. Holding the phone away from his ear, he exchanged an amused look with Abby, who reached over and took the phone away from him.
'That good, huh?' she said, quickly pulling the phone away from her ear, just in case.
It didn't take long to determine that the complaint-of-the-moment was about two students who had decided to copy each others' work on the final exam, with the result that Katie ended up spending more time filling in academic offence paperwork than the kids probably had spent studying.
In an effort to inject some tension-lessening humour into the situation, Tim commented that he knew all about the paperwork involved in dealing with delinquents. A moment too late, he realised that he'd failed to take into consideration just how stressed-out Katie was.
His ear still ringing from Katie's exasperated shriek, and his shoulder smarting from Abby's hard swat, Tim swallowed a comment that would probably get him into even more trouble and backed away, wondering how long he should wait before asking if he could have his phone back.
