Personal Jurisdiction (27 page)

“No. In fact, I’ve never even been to Canada,” Whitney said.

“You can’t be serious,” Alex said.

“Why would I have been? I’ve spent most of my time way down south in Texas.”

“True. Well, this should be fun. It’s somewhere between an eight and nine hour drive to Buffalo, so we’re going to get in pretty late. I’m going to try to power through and make good time the best I can.”

Whitney glanced at her watch. It was 3 p.m. It would be almost midnight by the time they got there. But at least they were not wasting their available Friday afternoon driving time. “It would be awesome to see Niagara Falls! What else are we doing?”

“Well, I thought a lot about the trip, and decided that, with just a week, it made more sense to pick one spot to explore rather than bouncing all over.”

“Okay.”

“So, after Niagara Falls, we’re going to drive to Portland, Maine and spend the week there. I’ve always wanted to go to Maine, and it’s still pretty cold there, so hopefully it won’t be too overrun with tourists. Does that sound okay?”

“Sounds good to me,” Whitney said.

“Are you sure? I mean, I know I told you we were going to see several places. I don’t want you to be disappointed.”

“Really, Alex, it’s fine. I’m happy to not spend the entire week driving. Speaking of driving, how long is the drive from Niagara Falls to Portland?”

“It’s going to take about nine hours.”

Whitney groaned. “Ugh so we have two days of basically driving all day.”

“I know,” Alex said. “But we’ll get to Portland tomorrow night, and then we’re there until next Saturday morning. We’ll have almost an entire week to hang out and explore. There are some companies that do guided brewery tours there, so I might want to look into that. But otherwise, we can just decompress from school and relax.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” Whitney said. “My best friend Rachel back in Texas tried to convince me not to come to law school by making me read all these horror stories of life as a law student. Some days I wish I had listened to her.”

Alex laughed. “I hear you. It’s a different lifestyle, that’s for sure.”

Alex picked up speed as they headed out of the city, and Whitney started fiddling with the radio settings.

“Are you seriously going to make me listen to country music the whole ride?” Alex asked.

Whitney shot him a winning smile. “Guilty as charged!” She found a country music station and then leaned back and fell asleep.

* * *

After a long drive, several hours of which Whitney slept through, the pair arrived at their hotel in Buffalo. Whitney dragged herself and her suitcase into the room, and then sprawled out and fell asleep across one of the double beds. She had not realized how tired the last few weeks had made her, but having a week ahead of her with nothing to worry about except relaxing made it easy to slip off into a peaceful sleep. Alex stood for a few moments watching Whitney’s back rise and fall with the rhythm of her breathing, and then he put a blanket over her and got ready for bed himself.

The next day, they drove across the border into Canada to see Niagara Falls. Although you could see the falls from the American side, Alex had heard that the view was better in Canada. They crossed Rainbow Bridge and drove around in circles until they found a parking lot near the falls. Whitney could have wandered around the viewpoints for hours. She stood looking out over the railings, getting soaked by the spray coming from the falls. The view was impressive.

“I should have brought a rain jacket,” she said to Alex. He just shrugged and smiled. He looked younger and happier today than he had in a while. It reminded Whitney of the way he had looked at the bar the first night she met him. Law school had been taking its toll on all of them.

Alex eventually pulled Whitney back to the car. He wanted to get going so that they would make it to Portland at a decent hour. They switched into dry clothes and grabbed an early lunch, managing to be on the road by noon. Whitney started scrolling through the playlists on Alex’s iPod, which he had hooked up to his car’s stereo.

“You have no country music on here!” Whitney complained.

“Why would I? You know I hate it.”

“But, aren’t you from Houston? How can you not have
any
?”

“I was so young when I left Houston.”

“This is sad. I need to dig my iPod out of my suitcase next time we stop.” Whitney settled on a soft rock playlist. Then she reclined her seat and put her feet up on the dashboard. Her socks were striped pink and purple.

“You can’t be serious,” Alex said, pointing to her socks.

“Why not? We’re on vacation,” Whitney said brightly.

Alex shook his head in amusement. “You are something else.”

They fell silent for a few minutes, listening to the sounds of The Eagles and Phil Collins. Then Alex suddenly glanced over at Whitney and asked, “So, what’s up with you and Ben?”

“Why does everyone keep asking me that?”

“I don’t know, maybe because he throws you an extravagant birthday party and then you two hardly speak for the rest of the week. It’s seriously weird.”

“Are you keeping tabs on how often we speak? Because that’s seriously weird.”

“I’m his roommate, Whitney. I see him all the time. All he does is go to class, then come home and play video games for hours. I’m kind of worried about him. I’m not sure he’s even doing the assigned reading for class anymore.”

Whitney frowned. This was not the first time Alex had mentioned Ben’s video game obsession. She hated video games, and she was not thrilled to hear that she was taking a backseat to them.

“I don’t know, Alex,” Whitney said. “He said he wasn’t ready to be in an exclusive relationship, and that he wants to take things slowly. That was at the beginning of February. There are days that he texts me nonstop, and every now and then he’ll take me out to dinner. And, yes, the birthday party was a big deal. But then there are these random periods of time where he acts like I don’t exist. I don’t know if he’s just scared, or confused, or what the deal is.”

“Has he kissed you again?”

“Alex!”

“Well, has he?”

“No.” Whitney looked out the window sullenly.

Alex did not say anything for a few moments. Finally, he spoke, “Look, Whitney, I know that Ben has a lot of things going on with his family back home right now, and he’s distracted by that. But you can’t keep letting yourself be strung along because he’s indecisive. I think if he was really into you, he would have made more of an effort by now. I mean, something’s wrong if he hasn’t even kissed you. How can he look at you and not freaking kiss you?”

Whitney looked over at Alex, surprised at his earnest tone. But Alex was staring straight ahead, his jaw set in a grim line.

“I don’t know,” Whitney said, and then the pair fell silent again. But Whitney’s uneasy feeling about Ben continued to grow. Whitney sighed in frustration. It was spring break. She was not going to see Ben for several days, so there was no need to make any decisions right now. She would worry about it next week, when she was back to school and back to Ben. Right now, she was going to forget about it and enjoy the road trip. Whitney turned up the volume on the radio, then leaned back into her seat and closed her eyes.

By the time Whitney and Alex pulled into Portland at 9 p.m., Whitney was regretting ever agreeing to a road trip. After spending two days in the car, she was ready for something different. As she lugged her suitcase into their hotel room, she said a silent prayer of thanks that Alex had decided to limit their trip to one destination. Her legs felt stiff, like they had forgotten how to move.

“So, what are we doing tomorrow?” Whitney asked.

“What do
you
want to do tomorrow? It’s your birthday, isn’t it?”

“Well, yes, but I already had a big party and you already gave me a gift. We don’t have to do something special just because tomorrow is the actual day.”

Alex gave her a look that said she was not getting away with skipping her birthday.

Whitney sighed. “I don’t know. We could just go to dinner somewhere nice or something like that.”

“You are so uncreative,” Alex said.

“Well, it’s my birthday. I don’t have to be creative if I don’t want to be,” Whitney said, and started rummaging through her suitcase for pajamas.

The next morning, Whitney woke up to Alex shaking her. “Hey, Whit, get up!”

Whitney opened her eyes, squinting at the lamplight. “What time is it?”

“5:30. Get up!”

Whitney sat up. “5:30 in the morning? Are you out of your mind?”

“No, I’m not. Get up! We’re going on an adventure! Dress warmly.”

Whitney groaned as she rolled out of bed. “This had better be good!” She put on jeans, thick socks and her fake UGGs. Then she chose a long sleeve shirt and her thickest fleece hoodie.

“How is this?” Whitney said, modeling her outfit for Alex.

“Perfect,” he said. He handed her a travel mug of coffee and a carton of blueberry muffins. “Happy Birthday! Real Maine blueberries. They better be good!”

“I’ll tell you what better be good—this adventure. I don’t like being woken up at the asscrack of dawn.”

“It’ll be good, I promise.”

After driving fifteen minutes, they pulled up to a large grassy area where a large white pickup truck was parked. Nearby was a huge piece of colorful fabric. Whitney looked around confused and then realized the fabric was connected to a large basket.

“Alex, is that a hot air balloon?”

“Yup! I’m taking you on a birthday balloon ride.” He handed her some gloves. “You’ll probably want these, too.”

Whitney got out of the car and looked at the balloon in awe. She had never seen a hot air balloon up close before, and it looked huge. Whitney had always wanted to go on a hot air balloon ride, but had never wanted to spend the money on it. She knew it was several hundred dollars a person, and wondered how much Alex had spent on this. “Alex, this is so cool. I can’t believe you set this up!”

Alex beamed. “Well, I was going to try to set up skydives for us, but I know you are freaked out about that. I thought this might be a nice way to ease into that.”

Whitney rolled her eyes at him. “I’m never going to skydive.”

“Never say never.”

The crew setting up the balloon called them over and had them assist with holding the balloon open while the burner inflated it. Whitney was in awe. “This is terrifying,” she yelled over at Alex. “It’s like a giant flamethrower is there just a few feet away from you.”

Alex just grinned. Before long, Whitney and Alex were in the basket and the balloon was lifting off the ground.

“Ahhhhh I can’t watch,” Whitney said. She squealed and instinctively buried her head in Alex’s chest. Alex wrapped his arms around her and laughed.

“You should watch. It’s part of the fun. Come on,” he said, and pushed her toward the basket’s edge.

Whitney squealed again but allowed herself to be positioned near the edge and look over.

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!”

“Oh, be serious, Whit. We’re not even that high yet!”

“It’s
scary
!”

The balloon rose higher and higher, and soon they were floating peacefully above the gorgeous Maine scenery. It was quiet, except for the occasional roar when the pilot turned on the burner. The sounds from the ground were surprisingly clear. Whitney watched the world below waking up as the sun slowly rose. They drifted for about an hour. It was one of the most breathtaking experiences of Whitney’s life. The landing was a little rough. The basket tipped over as they landed and Alex and Whitney tumbled into each other, but they were fine and laughed as they disentangled themselves.

Some of the crew had been following them in the white pickup truck. The hot air balloon pilot did not have control over where the balloon went, so a “chase crew” was necessary to follow them and pick them up when they landed. Whitney was ecstatic as she climbed into the pickup next to Alex for the ride back.

“That was incredible. That might be the most amazing birthday gift I’ve ever been given!”

Alex smiled. “I’m glad you liked it. Was it worth waking up early for that?”

“Yes! Although, now I’m starving. That blueberry muffin was not enough to hold me over!”

“Well, you’re in luck, because I’ve also planned a special birthday breakfast for you,” Alex said. They drove back into Portland and pulled in front of a small restaurant. When they went inside, Whitney oohed and ahhed over the colorful, cheery interior. On a decorative chalkboard near the host stand was written “Sunday Champagne & Pancakes” in flowery letters.

“This place has an unlimited champagne and pancakes special on Sundays. They also have a regular menu with omelets and stuff like that, but I recommend you try their pancakes. They have several kinds, including blueberry, if you didn’t have enough Maine blueberries already this morning!”