Personal Jurisdiction (22 page)

“Uh-oh,” Elise said.

“What the hell!” Whitney said. “They aren’t a thing now, are they? He barely even talks to her after class.” Whitney took a huge swig from her vodka cranberry.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” said Jamie, who had seen Ben walk in with Kate and had come over to Elise and Whitney to discuss this development. Jamie took Whitney’s glass from her and set it down on the bar. “Take it easy. The last thing you want to do is make a drunken fool of yourself. Besides, you know how Kate likes to invite herself along whenever she can.”

Whitney was angry. She had had enough of these games. Either she and Ben were going to be together, or they were not. She was tired of dancing around the issue and pretending that she was happy being just his friend. She grabbed her glass back from the bar, chugged the rest of her drink, and marched off in Ben’s direction. Ben, who had not seen her yet, was ordering from the bar, oblivious to Whitney’s arrival. Whitney intended to walk up to him and kiss him, but as she got closer and saw Alex’s panicked face and Kate’s angry expression, she lost her nerve. Instead, she tapped Ben on the shoulder. When he turned around, she gave him a big hug. Her body exploded with the familiar feeling of electricity when it touched his, and she did her best to keep her voice level.

“Ben! So good to see you here. I’ve barely seen you this semester! How have you been? I miss you.” Whitney’s voice sounded painfully over-peppy and she knew it, but she forced herself to continue smiling at Ben. She did her best to assume an open, friendly stance. Alex was standing next to them with his mouth slightly agape. Whitney did not dare to look at Kate.

To Whitney’s relief, Ben hugged her back and then gave her a huge smile. “Whit,” he said. “It’s been too long since we’ve properly hung out. What are you having? Let me buy you a drink.”

“Vodka cranberry,” Whitney said sweetly. She sidled up to Ben at the crowded bar, purposely squishing her body against his more than necessary. Whitney finally risked a glance in Kate’s direction, and could not help but feel triumph when she saw that Kate’s face was red with anger. When Whitney made eye contact with Kate, Kate opened her mouth to speak. Whitney braced herself for what might be coming, but before any words came out, Alex grabbed Kate’s arm. He dragged her in the direction of the jukebox, saying something about a song that Kate absolutely had to hear. Whitney breathed a sigh of relief and reminded herself to thank Alex later.

“How were your holidays?” Whitney asked, accepting the vodka cranberry that Ben handed to her.

“They were okay. My grandma has been a little under the weather lately, so it was nice to get home and spend some time with her. How was your break?”

“It was good. Nice to be in Texas where it’s warm.”

Ben nodded and took a sip from his drink. Whitney tried to think of something more to say, but she was nervous and could not think of anything else to discuss. She took a long sip from her drink to stall for time, and Ben picked up the slack in the conversation.

“So, I thought of you last weekend.”

Whitney’s heart skipped a beat. “You did?”

“Yeah, I went by Francesca’s. It’s that Italian place we went to for dinner last semester. Do you remember?”

Whitney wanted to laugh. She had only replayed the night in her head a thousand times. She just nodded. “Yeah, I remember.”

“They’ve revamped the menu and added some seafood dishes that look good. We should go again sometime. I eat there way too much, and I’m starting to feel ridiculous constantly going by myself.”

“Sure, I’d go again,” Whitney said, keeping her voice casual. Ben smiled and looked at her with those deep blue eyes that turned her knees to jelly. She wanted to lean in and kiss him right there, but her resolve to be bold and audacious about her feelings for him had evaporated. She told herself that taking it slow was not a bad idea, either. Maybe he got scared off last semester because things moved too quickly.

Ben and Whitney talked and drank for several hours. Ben told funny stories about catching up with old high school friends in San Francisco over winter break. Whitney listened and nodded, laughing here and there. She did not have any friends left over from high school. Even Rachel did not count. Whitney had met her the summer after high school graduation, and they had been close ever since. So when Ben asked if she had seen any high school friends over winter break, Whitney shrugged.

“No. I haven’t stayed in touch with anyone from high school. I was sort of a loner back then. You know, your stereotypical socially awkward nerd.”

Ben laughed. “I cannot imagine you ever being socially awkward.”

“I still feel socially awkward a lot of the time,” Whitney said, thinking that Ben had probably never truly felt that way.

“Well, that’s just ridiculous. You’re perfect,” he said, leaning against the bar and eyeing his empty glass. Whitney felt breathless at his words. Her heart pounded and she laughed nervously. The whole conversation tonight had been a little stilted. There was definitely still chemistry between them, but neither one of them seemed able to make the first move back into romantic territory.

Whitney watched Ben’s profile, while Ben kept staring at his glass. Finally, he looked up and put his hand on her arm. He met her eyes, and Whitney held his gaze. She felt her whole body heating up at his touch, in that familiar, delicious way that it had so many times last October. Was this really happening? Were they going to be able to pick up where they left off? Whitney bit her lip and told herself to keep her mouth shut. The last thing she wanted to do right now was say something stupid and ruin the moment.

“Whit, listen,” Ben began, but before he could get any further he was interrupted by Kate, who was shrieking and charging toward them.

“You whore!” Kate screamed, and lunged toward Whitney. Alex was following and trying unsuccessfully to catch her and hold her back.

“What the hell?” Whitney said, lifting her arms to protect her face as Kate tried to claw at her. Kate reeked of alcohol and was raging drunk.

“I warned you to stay away from him!” Kate screamed, struggling against Alex’s grip to try to get to Whitney.

“Catfight!” Someone yelled gleefully as a small crowd started forming and gawking at the two girls.

“Kate!” Ben yelled, “What are you doing? I told you, we are just friends!”

Did Ben mean that he and Kate were just friends? Or was he trying to say that he and Whitney were just friends? Whitney did not have much time to ponder the question. Kate lunged free of Alex’s grip and swung at Whitney, but Ben stepped in between them at the last moment. Kate’s fist made contact with Ben’s face instead of Whitney’s. Whitney watched in shock, her mouth hanging wide open as she saw Ben grimace with pain. The next thing she knew, a pair of strong arms had wrapped around her and were dragging her toward the exit.

“Let’s get out of here.” It was Alex.

“But, Ben…” Whitney said.

“He’s fine.”

“But…”

“Now, Whitney!” Alex said, not giving her much of a choice as he pulled her away from the growing crowd. Kate was screaming at Ben, and Ben was holding a hand over his eye where Kate’s punch had landed. Someone screamed something taunting at Kate, and she responded by taking a swing at them. With her last glance back as Alex dragged her out, Whitney saw Kate hurl another punch in the direction of a tall man she did not recognize.

“Wait, Alex! What about Elise and Jamie?”

“They’re fine. Lincoln was with them. I’m sure they’ll understand that you needed to leave.” Alex continued pulling Whitney along until they were a good two blocks away from the bar, then he turned and started looking for a cab. Whitney had no idea what was going on, but she was angry that Ben had been interrupted in the middle of whatever he had been about to say. From his tone, it had sounded like things were going in a good direction.

“Alex, I can get myself home just fine,” Whitney protested.

Alex shook his head. “Ben won’t be happy if I send you off on the bus alone at this hour.” A cab pulled up at Alex’s signal and Alex opened the door for Whitney. “In. Now.”

Whitney wanted to protest again. She was getting tired of Alex bossing her around. But something in Alex’s tired eyes made her think better of it, and she climbed into the cab. Alex gave the driver Whitney’s address, and then turned to look at her.

“Ben and I think Kate has a problem.”

“Well, that’s obvious,” Whitney said, her voice full of annoyance.

“No, Whitney. I’m serious. Like an alcohol problem. She’s constantly drinking, and she gets out of control when she does. Remember when she burst in on you in the study room last semester?”

“That wasn’t because she was drunk. It was only, like, eight in the morning!” Whitney said.

“I know what time it was,” Alex said. Understanding dawned on Whitney.

“Oh, shit,” she said. “But if you think she’s an alcoholic, why the hell would you bring her to Bar Review.”

Alex slumped in the cab seat. He looked exhausted. “She insisted on going. She’s still stalking Ben, and she came by and asked us to go. Ben actually didn’t want to go this week, but Kate threatened to go by herself. Ben knows that means she would get raging drunk, with no one to look out for her. So he came with her, and I tagged along to help. Of course, then you showed up and Ben forgot about watching Kate, so I ended up with that job. It’s not a fun job, let me tell you.”

Whitney took a moment to process all of this. She felt guilty. She had been so busy judging Kate that she had not realized Kate was struggling.

“There has to be a way to help her,” Whitney finally said.

Alex nodded. “She promised me she would go to the school’s counseling service. It’s free for students. But I don’t know if she’ll still want to do me any favors after tonight. She was so mad at me for trying to keep her away from you and Ben. Although, it’s also possible she won’t even remember what happened.” Alex rubbed his forehead and then stared out the window for several minutes without speaking.

“Hey, are you okay?” Whitney asked.

“Yeah, it’s just…I was warned that law was a crazy profession. But some of the stuff I’ve seen over the last week has made me question whether I should have taken those warnings more seriously. But, you know, I’m already seventy-five thousand dollars in the hole on student loans for this degree, so I’m not sure I can just walk away at this point.”

Whitney nodded. She had moments where she wanted to walk away, too. There were a lot of challenges to becoming a lawyer that were not clear from the glossy brochures you received from law schools and law firms. The legal profession had quite a dark underbelly.

“Do you want to come up and chill for a bit?” Whitney asked as the cab pulled up to her building. Alex shook his head no.

“Thanks, but I should get home. It’s late, and it’s been quite a day.”

Whitney nodded, and gave Alex a quick hug. As she rode the elevator up to her floor, she checked her phone. She had a text from Elise that said
We need a debrief tomorrow!
She also had a text from Ben:
Hey, so sorry about tonight. Things with Kate have been complicated lately. Can we finish our conversation over dinner at Francesca’s?
Whitney stared at the text for a few moments and then dropped her phone back into her purse. She was starting to feel like she needed to put some space between herself and Ben. But even as she ignored his text and let herself into her apartment, she knew she would never say no to his dinner invitation.

Whitney still had not replied to Ben’s text when she arrived at the law school the next day, and Ben cornered her before their first class.

“Hey, I’m so sorry about last night,” he said. His face was bruised where Kate’s fist had made contact with it the night before. “Did you get my text?”

“Yeah, sorry, I forgot to reply. Of course I’ll go to dinner with you,” Whitney said.

“Tonight?”

“Sure, tonight works,” Whitney said. It was Friday night and she felt a little pathetic for not already having other plans, but she was too tired to bother with acting like she had to check her schedule.

“Alex said he explained to you about Kate,” Ben said.

“Yeah. Is she okay?”

“I guess.” Ben sighed. “I don’t know what to do about her. I mean, she needs help, and I want to help her. But I’m also not interested in dating her, and every time I even take a moment to talk to her she sees it as encouragement to keep stalking me.”

Ben’s answer made Whitney feel a little ashamed that she had been angry with him for spending so much time with Kate, when it was actually just more proof of what a good, caring guy he was.

Before Whitney could figure out what else to say, they were interrupted by Elise, who spotted them at the end of the hallway and made a beeline for them.

“Oh my god, Whitney. What happened last night?” Elise said. “I can’t believe the way Kate was acting! And Ben, are you okay? She punched you good!”

“I’m fine,” Ben said, uncomfortable at Elise’s loud interruption. Whitney decided she needed to explain things before Elise made a complete fool of herself.

“I’ll see you tonight, Ben,” Whitney said, and then grabbed Elise’s arm. “Come on, let’s take a walk.”