The sleep helped, but it wasn't long enough. That damnable phone dinged with incoming messages. I ignored it as long as I could, but whoever texted me was impatient. The phone rang with a call.
If it was Alec, I was giving back the ring.
"Tee, get your ass online, now." It was Stiff. The ring was safe.
"Ten minutes," I mumbled into the phone.
"Brush your teeth while you're logging on."
I looked at the time. Eh, I'd worked on less sleep.
"Sure. On my way."
I ran a hand over my face and smoothed back the hair. I checked the text messages. Two were from Alec, who was just checking in and wishing me a good day.
I reminded myself to load the AI text response mod on the new phone so Alec received periodic touch-base messages during the day while I was too busy to focus my energy on him.