Personal Jurisdiction (3 page)

Whitney joined in as the applause started, then looked over as she heard a cynical snort from Elise’s seat.

“Something great, my ass,” Elise said. “Let the gunner games begin.”

The rest of the day passed in a blur of informational meetings and introductions. With every meeting, Whitney felt more and more out of place. She seemed to be the only one who had not graduated from an Ivy League university and then landed an impressive job that either paid loads of money or contributed to the betterment of humanity on a large scale. She even met someone who had saved African orphans. Literally. Lincoln Reed was his name. Lincoln Reed who saved African orphans. His dad had connections in a South African orphanage, and had convinced the head of the orphanage to create an internship for his son.

At just past 5:30 p.m., Whitney found herself back in the atrium, which had been transformed to hold a cocktail reception. She entered the sea of people, unsure of which conversation she should try to break into, until she spotted Elise. Elise caught Whitney’s eye and waved her over. Lincoln was standing next to Elise, along with another male student Whitney had not met yet. Lincoln was not bad looking, with blonde hair, green eyes, and a tan that made him look as though he had flown in straight from Los Angeles. His friend, however, was exactly the kind of drop-dead gorgeous that Whitney could not resist swooning over. His deep brown hair was tousled into an almost orderly mess, and he had smoky blue eyes to complete the blue-eyes-brown-hair combination that Whitney loved. He was tall—a couple inches taller than Lincoln, who was not exactly short himself. Both of the men had on khaki slacks and navy polo shirts, like they had intentionally coordinated their outfits.

“Whitney! Where have you been? Was this not the longest day
ever
?” Elise was holding a glass of red wine in one hand and a glass of white wine in the other. “So many unnecessary meetings! Anyways, this is Lincoln Reed, and this is Ben Parks.”

Lincoln gave Whitney a friendly nod of recognition, and Ben stretched out his hand to shake Whitney’s.

“Hi,” she said, feeling butterflies in her stomach the second Ben’s hand touched hers. “I’m Whitney. Morris. Whitney Morris,” Whitney said, almost forgetting to add her last name. She hoped she did not sound as flustered as she felt. She had promised herself she would not spend her time in law school chasing men, but it was okay to look, right? Ben smiled at her and the butterflies fluttered faster. Who was she kidding? If she was going to be seeing that smile every day, any plans of trying to remain single were out the window. Back in Texas, Rachel would always roll her eyes when Whitney announced she was taking a break from dating. Rachel would claim Whitney only decided to take a break when there were no interesting options around. Whitney hated to admit it, but Rachel was right. And Ben was definitely an interesting option.

“Where are you from?” Ben asked. Whitney was starting to dread this question because it was part of the three standard questions everyone had asked today when meeting someone: Where are you from? What did you do before law school? What kind of law do you want to practice? The last thing Whitney wanted to do right now was confess to Ben that her life before law school had been decidedly ordinary.

“Um, Texas, what about you?” Whitney asked. Maybe if she got him talking about himself first she could avoid the questions for a while.

“San Francisco,” Ben said, “I grew up there and then went to undergrad at—”

“Guys! The line for drinks is so long!” Jamie squeezed into their circle, carrying two bottles of beer, one of which she handed to Ben. “Elise, are you double-fisting two different kinds of wine?”

“I wasn’t sure which one I wanted, and, you said it yourself—the line is long. I didn’t want to have to stand in it again. Here,” she said, handing one of the glasses to Whitney, “Do you like red wine? Take this one. I think it’s a Cabernet.”

Whitney, a fan of all types of wine, took the glass gratefully. She desperately wanted a drink to loosen up, but did not want to leave for fear Ben would have moved on by the time she returned. She wanted to hear more of his background, but was not sure how to steer the conversation back without risking being asked more questions herself. Whitney suddenly felt self-conscious about her outfit. Next to Elise’s turquoise dress and Jamie’s vibrant orange top, she felt boring and plain in her black dress. She took a gulp of her wine, even though it was a bit of a sin to gulp wine instead of sip it.

“Hey, at least it’s free alcohol, even if you have to wait for it,” said Ben.

“It’s not worth it. I’d rather just pay for drinks and not have to wait forever. Besides it’s about five hundred degrees in here. I’m melting,” Elise said, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand.

“Of course you feel that way!” Jamie said. “Your parents are sweet-talking you into getting a law degree by paying for everything!”

“Oh please, like your parents are not subsidizing anything for you!” Elise said.

“Hey, I’m taking out loans for all of my tuition. They are only paying for my living expenses.” Jamie had a hand on her hip, feigning indignation.

Whitney took another gulp of wine. Evidently, money was not a taboo topic here. Elise seemed almost proud that her law school efforts were being bankrolled by her family. Whitney could not imagine being twenty-six years old and having her parents pay for everything. Then again, she could not imagine being any age and having her parents pay for everything. Things had just never been that way. She glanced at Ben, who appeared amused by the conversation.

“If you guys want to move this party to a real bar, I’m down,” Lincoln said. “I’ve had enough of this building for today, anyways. I know it’s a bit of a trek, but I heard a bunch of people are meeting up for drinks at some bar in Lakeview that has great Friday night drink specials. Kind of an unofficial party to end orientation.”

Elise’s face brightened and she looked imploringly at Jamie and Whitney.

“Oooh let’s do that! Please! It will be fun. We can go change and then split a cab. I’m ready for a change of scenery, too!”

“Sure,” Jamie said. Ben shrugged and nodded.

“Um, sure, but I actually live in Lakeview, so I’ll just meet you guys there.”

The group all turned and looked at Whitney like she had suddenly grown an extra head.

“You live in Lakeview? But, you’re going to have to commute. That’s not a good idea for the first year of law school,” Elise said.

“Well, I mean, it’s just nicer to live in an actual neighborhood,” Whitney said. “And I’ve heard everyone moves out there after the first year of law school, anyways, so I might as well get a jump on it. No sense in moving twice.” She shrugged like she thought they were the weird ones for not moving to Lakeview. She was not going to start explaining the great deal she got on rent compared to the condo building down the street from school. She also was not going to explain that she would rather stay and drink the free alcohol because it was free. Since law school was too time-intensive to allow for a job on the side, she was going to be living on a very tight student loan budget. Tight budgets were nothing new to Whitney, but she was starting to see that explaining this to Elise and Jamie might be difficult.

“Wow, well, if you ever need a place to crash close by you’re welcome to my couch anytime,” Elise said. “We’ll see you there, then? Should we say 8 o’clock?”

The group agreed to the time, and then dispersed after exchanging phone numbers and the address of the bar, which happened to be only two blocks from Whitney’s apartment. Whitney started walking back to the bus stop, already thinking about what she could wear, and how to get out of having to answer more questions about her life before law school.

* * *

Whitney entered the dark, noisy bar with her cell phone in hand, just in case she had trouble finding Elise or Jamie and needed to text them. She had changed into a yellow sundress with delicate spaghetti straps and a fitted bodice. The flouncy skirt ended just above her knees, and she paired it with a pair of nude-colored strappy platform sandals. She had purchased the ensemble for Rachel’s birthday party last June, and it was one of her favorite outfits. She left her hair straight and freshened up her makeup. Back in Texas, she would have felt confident that she would be the best-dressed girl in the room. But the rules here were different, and she was sure Elise would have pulled some other vintage designer piece from her cavernous closet.

Whitney spotted Elise and Jamie by the far end of the bar. Elise had changed into a black miniskirt and sleeveless fuchsia top, paired with black peep toe flats. It was just the right amount of sexy without spilling over into trashy. Jamie had not bothered to change, although her ponytail was gone and her hair was hanging loosely around her shoulders. The two girls were sitting on barstools, cocktails in hand, laughing and talking with Lincoln.

“Hey, guys. Ben’s not here yet?” Whitney asked, trying to keep her voice light.

Elise’s face lit up at the sight of Whitney, and she ignored the Ben question completely. “Hey! Here take my barstool, I’m sick of sitting anyways. What do you want to drink? They do have some beer specials, but these cocktails are amazing!” Elise scooted off her barstool while Jamie and Lincoln smiled in greeting. Whitney smiled at them, and then scanned the specials list. Almost everything was at least seven dollars, with a few five dollar options thrown in. Whitney felt like drinking, but could already see her well planned budget derailing after a few rounds here. She decided to just go for the cheapest option on the specials list and flagged down the bartender.

“Can I get a Miller Lite on draft, please?” Whitney saw Jamie making a face at her out of the corner of her eye, but chose to ignore it. She was not a fan of watery beer, but each of these babies would only set her back three dollars.

“Seriously, Whitney? Miller Lite?” Jamie said. “Do you hate your taste buds or something?”

Whitney just shrugged. “I
like
Miller Lite,” she lied. “Besides, it’s less calories over the course of the night.”

Jamie rolled her eyes, but Elise nodded her head. “She has a point,” Elise said, then shrugged and changed the subject. “Lincoln was just telling us about his internship in South Africa. Can you believe he never even went on a safari while he was in Africa?”

“It’s probably as hard to believe as the fact that I don’t know any cowboys.”

“Hey, I was there to
work
, Elise, not frolic around with the local wildlife,” Lincoln said, and then started describing the process of determining whether an orphan had any living relatives.

Whitney was scanning the room for Ben, and only heard about half of what Lincoln was saying. From Lincoln’s stories, at least, it sounded like he had worked hard while interning. Whitney had to admit that she automatically judged anyone who took an internship set up by a parent. It seemed too easy, too calculated. Maybe she was just jealous that she never had anyone set up an internship for her. Everything about her undergraduate education and first job had been haphazard. Her parents thought she should just go to the local community college because it was cheap, and her high school guidance counselor did little more than inundate her with piles of colorful brochures. With no college graduates in her family, she had no one to go to for advice, but she managed to decide on and secure a spot at UT. She was sure now, however, that she had missed out on a lot of scholarships simply because she did not know enough to apply for them. Finding her first job had been equally disorganized. She threw together a cover letter and résumé and applied to more jobs than she could count. But the combination of not really knowing what she wanted to do and an amateurish résumé left her with no options except the call center gig. She could not be too upset about where she had ended up, but she still felt a pang of jealousy with each new story she heard today about another amazing job or internship.

Whitney set down her empty glass and signaled the bartender for another. Lincoln was now in the middle of a story about spending the night in Heathrow after he accidentally missed his connecting flight home from Africa. Whitney had never been to London, but she knew Heathrow was located there thanks to celebrity gossip magazines. There was always a picture of some famous person walking through Heathrow or LAX, looking glamorous despite the fact that they were wearing sweats and had just deplaned from a twelve hour flight. As Whitney dutifully laughed at Lincoln’s story, she felt a sudden poke in her ribs.

“Who are you looking for?” Jamie demanded.

“Huh? What? No one. Why?” Whitney tried to look confused, but Jamie was not buying it.

“He’s over there.” She gestured toward a large booth in a front corner of the bar, where Ben was sitting and talking to two skinny blondes. Whitney felt her heart sink a bit.

“I met those girls earlier,” Jamie said. “Kate and Crystal. Crystal is nice enough. She’s young, only a year out of undergrad. She didn’t even work in that year, just traveled through Asia and Europe. Kate seems like a first-class bitch. Just stared at me the whole time Crystal and I were talking like she might literally die from the boredom of having to listen to me. I hate bitches like that.”

Whitney said nothing, just watched Ben laughing at something Kate said. Or was it Crystal? Whitney was not sure which one was which. Whitney glanced at her watch. 8:55. This day had been overwhelming, and she wanted to go home. It was too early to leave without raising a volley of protests and questions, though. She guzzled her second Miller Lite and ordered another one, ignoring the little voice telling her to slow down.