Personal Jurisdiction (21 page)

Whitney sighed. She had a feeling Elise was going to persist until she gave in. “Fine. But we’re not ordering deep dish. That stuff is gross.”

“We can order whatever you want! Just get your butt over here. Take a cab, my treat.”

Whitney packed up her stuff and headed out, but she took the bus to Elise’s apartment. She was done for the day with feeling guilty about letting someone else cover her cab fare. When she arrived, Jamie was already there and was perched on one of Elise’s barstools with a glass of wine in her hand.

“I thought this was pizza and beer night,” Whitney teased, gesturing at Jamie’s wine.

“We changed it to Thai takeout and wine!” Elise said. She was buzzing around her kitchen, and there were bowls and kitchen utensils everywhere, accompanied by several bags of different flours.

“What in the world are you doing?” Whitney asked.

“Oh! I’m making cookies for us!”

“Right. You know you can’t make cookies out of just flour?”

“I know. But I can’t find anything with all these bags of flour in the way so I had to pull them off the shelf for a minute.”

Whitney scanned the labels on the bags. Pastry flour, cake flour, self-rising flour, bread flour, whole-wheat flour. She could not even read some of the labels because they were blocked by other bags. “Why do you have all of these different kinds of flour, anyways?”

“I went to this baking class a couple months ago and they talked about the importance of different flours for different types of baking, so I decided to stock up. Aha!” Elise said, emerging victorious from the cupboard with a canister of baking soda. “I knew I had some somewhere.”

Whitney shook her head in amusement as Elise continued foraging through her cupboards for ingredients. With the promise of home baked chocolate chip cookies in her future, Elise seemed to have completely forgotten her earlier despair about her grades. That was the thing about Elise—she was hardly ever down, and, when she was, it was never for long. Whitney sat down next to Jamie, who looked decidedly less enthusiastic than Elise.

“How are you?” Whitney asked.

“Alright,” Jamie said, a bit sullenly.

“Really? Because you sound kind of pissed off.”

Jamie sighed. “It’s just been a long day. Lincoln is driving me insane. He is so upset for no reason.”

“Why don’t you just ignore him for a while?” Whitney asked. Jamie gave her a longsuffering look in response.

“You know it’s impossible to ignore him when he’s in one of his moods,” she said. It was true. Lincoln could be very persistent. Jamie and Lincoln had become close friends over the last few months, which led Elise to occasionally question whether Jamie had a thing for him. Jamie always rolled her eyes at Elise and declared that Lincoln was too high maintenance for anything more complicated than friendship. Sometimes, Whitney thought he was too complicated even for that.

Whitney did not ask Jamie about her grades, and Jamie did not offer any information. Jamie had probably done well, and, besides, she wanted a permanent position in the legal department of the nonprofit where she had interned. They already knew and liked Jamie, so she did not have to worry about grades as much.

The doorbell rang and Jamie hopped up to get it. “That’s the delivery guy,” she said.

“You guys already ordered?” Whitney frowned. “But you didn’t even tell me you had switched to Thai food, let alone ask me what I wanted.”

“We got you chicken pad Thai,” Jamie said. “It’s what you order every single time we go out for Thai food, so no complaining.” It was true, although Whitney was still a bit annoyed that they had not bothered to ask her.

Elise emerged from the kitchen. “I think I’ve found all of the ingredients,” she announced proudly. “Let’s eat in the living room so we can watch TV. Then I’ll finish the cookies when we’re done with dinner.” Elise grabbed the bottle of wine and two more wine glasses, and followed Jamie and Whitney to the couch.

As soon as they had started eating, Elise asked whether either of them had given any thought to Barrister’s Ball, and Jamie groaned.

“Please tell us you’re not going to campaign for us to go to Barrister’s Ball,” Jamie said.

“Actually, I was going to campaign for you guys
not
to go,” Elise said.

Barrister’s Ball, informally known as “law school prom,” was a semi-formal event with an open bar, held by many law schools in February. It was an excuse to get dressed up in a short cocktail dress and then get so drunk that you probably would have been a lot better off if you had been wearing pants instead of a cocktail dress. Whitney had just assumed they would all go. Getting dolled up was a favorite pastime of Elise’s, so Whitney was surprised that she would suggest they skip the event.

“I met this cute guy who is on the junior board for some boring sounding organization,” Elise explained. “Anyways, the board is holding a cocktail fundraiser the same night as Barrister’s Ball and he wants me to go with him. You guys should come, too. Tickets are sixty bucks, but that’s the same price as Barrister’s Ball. And it will be way more fun. You can meet some hot Chicago men. Lord knows there aren’t enough good-looking men at this law school. Plus, business men are more fun than lawyers.”

Jamie shrugged. “I wasn’t planning on going to Barrister’s Ball,” she said. “So I don’t mind going to this. I could stand to meet a few young professionals in Chicago who don’t currently have their heads up their asses about their law school grades.”

Elise looked expectantly at Whitney. Whitney had been planning on going to Barrister’s Ball. More specifically, she had been dreaming of going to Barrister’s Ball with Ben. Whitney had been brainstorming things she could use as excuses to hang out with Ben, with the eventual goal being to break through the “friend zone” barrier that seemed to have gone up.

“I kind of wanted to go to Barrister’s Ball,” Whitney finally said.

Elise sighed. “Why? Has Ben asked you to go with him or something?” The sarcasm in Elise’s question was unmistakable, and Whitney looked hurt.

“Look,” Elise said, her tone softening, “I know you want things to move along with Ben, and, of course, I think he’s an idiot if he lets you slip away. But you shouldn’t let your whole life revolve around him. Come to the fundraiser. It will be fun. You’ll meet new guys. New, cute guys. You don’t have to decide you like any of them. But, sometimes, it’s nice to have a reminder that there are other options out there. Don’t get in a Ben rut.”

Whitney did not want to admit it, but she knew that Elise was right. “Fine,” Whitney said. “I’ll tentatively agree to go to the fundraiser, but I reserve my right to change my mind if I have the chance to go to Barrister’s Ball with Ben.”

“Fine. Fair enough,” Elise said. Whitney could tell that Elise was not happy with this answer, but there was not a high likelihood that Ben would ask Whitney to go to Barrister’s Ball with him, anyways. Elise probably knew this, and thought it was better not to argue over what would end up being a nonissue.

“Alright,” Elise said. “Next order of business. I want to be warm for Spring Break, so I’ve decided to go to Saint Thomas. You two should come. Pretty please? It would be so fun to be on vacation together for a week. We can laze at the beach all day and let men buy us drinks at the bar all night!”

Jamie jumped in before Whitney could respond. “Yes! Now you’re talking. I’ve been thinking about how much I need some sunshine. New York for Christmas wasn’t much better than being in Chicago, weather-wise. Have you looked at hotels yet?”

Elise’s face lit up. “Yes. There’s this one I love that has awesome rooms with balconies overlooking the water. We could even get a big suite and share it. And seriously, if you don’t want to lie on the beach all day there is so much to do there! Whitney, please say you’re in, too!”

Whitney shook her head no. She was mentally trying to guess what the cost of a flight to Saint Thomas would be over spring break. And she was sure that the hotel that Elise was eyeballing was not going to be cheap. “I’m sorry, Elise. That’s a definite no. There’s no way I can afford to swing that.”

Elise’s face fell. “What if I paid for you?” she asked.

Whitney shook her head no again. “Absolutely not. I’m not letting you do that.” Elise knew fighting with Whitney about this would be futile. Whitney usually refused to even let Elise cover cab fare.

“Okay. Well, let me know if you change your mind. It would be fun for all three of us to hang out in the Caribbean together,” Elise said.

Whitney smiled and nodded. It would be fun, and she felt a sharp pang of regret. She had not thought too much about what she was going to do for spring break, but it was unlikely that it would be anything spectacular. She had considered going to Texas for the week, but she did not want to spend the money on a plane ticket. Flights everywhere during spring break had been so expensive when she checked. Maybe she would just take the week to explore more of Chicago. There were a lot of things in the city she wanted to see, but during the semester everything fun got put on the back burner.

Whitney wondered what Ben was doing for spring break. Elise had been hinting lately that Whitney needed to move past her crush on him, but Whitney was not giving up hope yet. After all, they had just come back from winter break. She had barely had a chance to spend time with him. Maybe, once she did, things would heat up between them again.

Whitney frowned. She should try to nail down some plans with Ben. Kate had not slowed down in her quest for him. One would think that after Kate’s crazy outburst at Whitney in the library last semester, Kate would be embarrassed to be around Whitney. But even though Whitney sat near Ben in every class, Kate always found reasons to come talk to Ben after a lecture. Kate simply acted like Whitney was not there.

“Come on, no more sad faces! Let’s head back to the kitchen,” Elise said, gathering up the remnants of her Thai food. “I want to make those cookies.” Whitney smiled and resisted the urge to point out that Elise had sported a sad face most of the last twenty-four hours due to her supposedly awful grades.

The rest of the evening was spent eating an ungodly amount of cookies, drinking plenty of wine, and indulging in juicy gossip about law school classmates. Whitney laughed and joined in on the gossip, but she could not shake the nagging, uneasy feeling that the evening had given her. Their conversation earlier had been a reminder that she and Ben were still in the friend zone. Whitney realized that if she was going to have a chance at Ben, she needed to be proactive. If Kate could do it, so could she. Whitney would not let Ben slip away without a fight.

The next Thursday, Whitney convinced Elise and Jamie to go to Bar Review with her. Bar Review happened every Thursday, and consisted of the law students meeting for drink specials at a local bar. Whitney, Elise, and Jamie rarely went, since neither the bars themselves nor the drink specials were ever that spectacular. However, Whitney knew that Ben loved to go to Bar Review, and she made no effort to hide her motivation for attending this week. Elise balked.

“Seriously, Whitney. I don’t want to go on a wild goose chase after Ben with you. I hate Bar Review, and most of the people who go are the annoying, egotistical, full-of-themselves jerks that I can’t stand to be around.”

“You said yourself that I had to snatch Ben up before someone else did,” Whitney countered. “That’s what I’m trying to do. As one of my best friends, it’s your job to support me in this endeavor.” Elise made a pouty face but did not argue. Jamie did not put up much of a fight. She was used to being dragged to Bar Review now and then, since Lincoln was also fond of attending.

This was how, that Thursday night, the three girls ended up venturing into a bar overrun by Elise’s least favorite law students and several drunk twenty-one-year-olds. Elise, resigned to her fate for the evening, made her way quickly to the bar. The quicker she took the edge off of being here, the better. Jamie found a barstool next to Lincoln and settled in with a beer, while Whitney nervously scanned the list of drink specials, finally settling on a vodka cranberry. Elise made a face.

“Whitney, vodka cranberry? You might as well be one of these twenty-one year olds,” Elise said.

“I know, but it’s cheap. Besides, I need some serious liquor,” Whitney said, scanning the room. “What if he doesn’t show up?”

“He will,” Elise said, without a trace of doubt in her voice.

“How can you be so sure?” Whitney asked.

“I just know,” Elise said. “I have a good feeling.” Elise squeezed Whitney’s arm and smiled at her encouragingly. Elise had helped Whitney get ready tonight, flat-ironing her hair perfectly straight, and then spritzing it with an expensive styling mist. Whitney’s hair fell softly around her shoulders and had a glamorous sheen. Elise had also done Whitney’s makeup. Whitney usually hated it when someone else did her makeup. It made her feel uncomfortable and awkward, like some sort of fake mask had been applied to her face. But Elise had a natural talent for it, and managed to give Whitney exactly the smoky, sultry look she wanted.

Elise’s prediction that Ben would show up at the bar was correct, but she had not predicted who would walk in with him. A half-hour later, Ben arrived, accompanied by Alex and Kate. Whitney felt her body stiffen when she saw Kate, and Alex’s face took on a worried expression when he realized Whitney had seen Ben and Kate together.