Personal Jurisdiction (7 page)

“I have two younger sisters. One is two years younger than me and the other is four years younger. My parents spaced us out pretty evenly. My dad is a lawyer. He’s a partner at big firm in San Francisco. My mom is a high school art teacher at a small private school. She’s amazing. One of the most genuine people I’ve ever known.”

Whitney giggled again, for no reason. “So, did you get any of the artist genes?”

Ben laughed. “Not really. My mom tried to get me into painting, but I have no talent. Of course, love is blind, and my mom thinks I’m the next Picasso or something. I still paint stuff just for stress relief, but it’s not any good.”

“It must be nice to have parents who are so supportive of you.”

Ben raised an eyebrow. “Not so close with your family?”

“No. I’m an only child, and my parents aren’t happy with my decision to go to law school. They think I’d be better off just marrying and settling down. But…that wasn’t working out too well since my last long-term boyfriend broke up with me. So, here I am. Going to law school.” Whitney suddenly felt very lonely. Not only did she not have supportive parents, but her best friend back home was not exactly being supportive, either. And she felt out of place with the privileged law school crowd. Sure, she was having fun with Ben tonight, but she was going to have to send her budget into overdrive to make up for the money she had spent on just one night out with him.

Almost as if he could read her mind, Ben pulled out his wallet and threw a credit card on the table. “I’ve got this,” he said, taking another swig from his wine glass.

“What? No, it’s too much!” Whitney had not even looked at the total yet. She had been dreading it. “I’ll pay half!” Whitney started fumbling in her purse. Her hands felt heavy and she could not find her wallet. She accidentally pulled out a tube of lip gloss instead of her wallet and giggled. The wine was definitely catching up with her.

“No, I insist. It’s my treat.” Ben held up his wine glass. “Cheers, to the beginning of law school and the beginning of a great friendship. And, for the record, any guy who dumped you was an idiot. But I’m selfishly glad he did because you ended up here in Chicago instead of with him.”

Whitney felt her heart racing as she met Ben’s gaze across the table and heard him say these words. With a great amount of effort and concentration, she managed to lift her wine glass off the table and connect with his. The last thing she remembered was the sound of their glasses clinking as she giggled and simply said, “Cheers.”

Whitney’s head felt like it was splitting open anew with each and every beep of her phone’s alarm. She groaned and swatted at her nightstand, until she accidentally swatted her phone onto the floor, where it continued to protest. Slowly, Whitney got out of bed and found the phone. She fumbled with the keys to silence it before falling back into bed and mercifully drifting back to sleep, where her pounding head could be ignored.

Nine minutes later, her phone began beeping again. Whitney cursed as she sat up and grabbed the phone from her nightstand, careful this time to turn the alarm completely off instead of just hitting snooze. For about fifteen minutes, she tried to fall back to sleep, but the pounding in her head now refused to be ignored. Whitney stumbled to her bathroom and threw two aspirin into her mouth before taking a long drink of water straight from the faucet. Why was her alarm set on a Saturday morning, anyways?

Suddenly, it hit her. She was supposed to be meeting Elise and Jamie for brunch! She momentarily considered canceling, but then realized that some food would probably do her good right now. Besides, Whitney had told Elise she could not hang out last night because she had to study. Elise would not be happy if she realized Whitney was missing brunch due to a wine hangover from a night out with Ben.

Whitney showered in record time, and thirty minutes later she was scanning the crowd waiting outside an overcrowded brunch joint, trying to spot Elise or Jamie. Whitney had pulled her still damp hair up into a messy bun, and she was wearing a loose gray tunic over black leggings. She had put on makeup, but still felt as though her eyes were puffy. She was wearing an old pair of mega-oversized sunglasses to solve that problem. Elise spotted her and waved her over, not overlooking the size of Whitney’s shades.

“Oh my god, Whitney. What’s with the huge sunglasses? Are you channeling Nicole Richie circa 2006 or something?” In response, Whitney just lifted the sunglasses so Elise could see her eyes.

“Oh. My. God. I thought you were
studying
last night,” Elise said.

Just then, a voice on the loudspeaker outside the restaurant called out, “Elise, party of three.”

“Let’s sit down, and then I’ll explain,” Whitney said. “I need some coffee, stat.”

The three girls settled into a booth in a back corner of the restaurant, and Whitney practically inhaled the mug of coffee the server poured for her.

“So?” Jamie asked, looking quizzically at Whitney.

“Don’t be mad, but I did go out last night.”

“Well, that’s obvious,” Elise said. “You look like you drank whatever bar you went to dry.”

“I didn’t go to a bar. I went to a restaurant. With Ben.”

Jamie slapped the table excitedly. “I knew you were into him!”

Elise’s eyes widened. “You like Ben? Also, not cool blowing off your girls for a guy! What’s up with that?”

“It wasn’t planned. I swear. I was studying at the library and Ben came by. We studied a little while and he insisted that we grab some dinner. It was just a friends’ thing. Nothing romantic. We ate at this Italian restaurant near school. Francesca’s, I think?”

“I love that place! I went there for dinner last Wednesday!” Jamie said.

“Yeah, it’s good. We ate a ton of food. And shared three bottles of wine.”

“Holy shit!” Elise said. “No wonder you’re looking a little rough this morning.”

“Yeah. I know. Red wine hangovers are brutal.”

“So,” Jamie said, “What happened? Did you have a good time? Do you think you guys will go out again?”

“I mean, it wasn’t like that. It was just dinner as friends.”

“But you do like him?” Elise asked.

“Yes, I do like him,” Whitney said, feeling self-conscious. Ben felt so far out of her league, and confessing that she liked him made her feel like a silly schoolgirl. Yet, she was dying to talk to someone about it, and Rachel did not seem interested in the details of her life right now.

Elise squealed and clapped her hands. She had to be one of the most enthusiastic people Whitney had ever met. “He is so cute! You two make such a cute couple!”

“We’re not a couple, Elise!” Whitney said, exasperated. “We just had dinner. As friends.”

“Was there any chemistry? How did he say good night?” Jamie asked.

“Well, there was definitely chemistry. But, um, I don’t know how he said good night.”

Jamie looked horrified. “You blacked out?”

Whitney shrugged. “Three bottles of wine, guys. What do you expect? Things got a little fuzzy toward the end. He probably doesn’t remember, either.”

“At least you woke up at your own apartment. You did wake up at your own apartment, right?” Jamie asked.

“Yes! I’m sure I just grabbed a cab home or something. You guys are blowing this way out of proportion. I mean, I have a little bit of a crush on him, but I’m telling you nothing even remotely romantic happened. We’re just friends. It was just two friends having a friendly dinner.” Even as Whitney said this, she knew it was not entirely the truth. What had Ben meant when he said he was glad her old boyfriend had dumped her? Was he just being friendly? Or was he hinting that he was interested in something more?

“Listen,” Elise said, suddenly sounding all business. “If you’re interested in him, you need to make it clear to him. Don’t dilly-dally around in the friend zone and pretend you don’t care. He’s a catch, and I guarantee you he won’t be single long. If you don’t snatch him up, someone else will.”

Whitney knew Elise was probably right, and the thought of Ben dating someone else made her stomach tighten up in knots. But, she did not want to chase after Ben. First, she had told herself she was not in Chicago to meet boys. Of course, if something naturally developed with Ben, she was not going to complain. But she also was not about to go throwing herself at him because someone else might “snatch him up.” Second, she was worried that even if she did throw herself at him, she would be rejected and feel horribly embarrassed. Even though no one at law school had said anything to her about the fact that they went to better universities and had better job experiences, Whitney still felt insecure about her mediocre background. Surely, Ben wanted someone at his side who had also gone to an Ivy League school, and who had job experience that could actually count as career experience.

“I just don’t know if he’s interested in me in that way. I want to get to know him a little better as a friend, first,” Whitney said.

“Stall at your own peril,” Elise insisted.

“What about you two? Are either of you interested in anyone?” Whitney asked, mostly to avoid having to explain any more about why she did not want to pursue Ben right now.

“Alex is pretty hot,” Elise said.

Jamie made a face. “Stay away from him. He’s nice, but I’ve heard he’s quite a player. Rumor has it he slept with every female server at the restaurant where he used to work.”

“Who told you that?” Whitney asked in an accusing tone, surprising herself with how defensive she felt of Alex. After all, he had tried to make a move on her when they had only known each other for a few hours. It would not be that surprising to discover that he was the type to sleep around a lot.

“Crystal told me,” Jamie said. “Apparently Ben was drunk at the bar after orientation, and divulged all kinds of interesting information about Alex. They’re roommates, you know.”

“I know,” Whitney said. She was annoyed at Ben for gossiping about Alex, but maybe Ben thought it was cool that Alex had slept with every girl at the restaurant. Whitney did not want to think about whether Ben liked the idea of sleeping around.

Elise shrugged. “Well, I mean, I just think Alex is good-looking. I barely know him so I don’t know if I’m interested or not.”

“I could say the same thing about Ben,” Whitney said.

Their food arrived, and the conversation shifted from boys to their worries over the difficulties of law school. Whitney took another dose of Advil, and her pounding headache started to subside as she washed the medicine down with copious amounts of water and coffee. The greasy hash browns helped, too. Whitney was enjoying herself more than she thought she would when she dragged herself out of the apartment this morning. As the bill arrived and they calculated how to split it up, Elise proclaimed the brunch a success and insisted they must make brunching a regular occurrence. Jamie rolled her eyes but agreed it had been fun.

“Why stop at just brunch? Do you guys want to go shopping?” Jamie asked. “I’ve been wanting to check out the stores on Michigan Avenue, and it’s so nice out today. Might as well take advantage of it before the infamous Chicago winter arrives.”

“Oh! I wish I could but I have a hair appointment,” Elise said. “I’m trying to find a good stylist in town and this girl comes highly recommended. I’ll let you know how it goes.”

“I’ll go with you,” Whitney said. She loved shopping, and walking around a bit was probably not a bad idea after the mountain of carbs she had just consumed. Jamie was right about the weather, too. It would be a shame to waste this warm September day.

* * *

Ninety minutes later, Whitney felt her head spinning, and it was not a leftover effect from last night’s ill-advised wine binge. She had heard that the shopping on Michigan Avenue was intense, but following Jamie through Burberry, Gucci, and Neiman Marcus had been a shopping trip unlike any she had experienced before. The array of merchandise was dizzying, as was the shock of peeking at the price tags. Jamie seemed to not notice the small fortune she was spending as she nonchalantly handed over her credit card at each store.

Jamie chatted almost nonstop, which was a bit surprising to Whitney. Elise usually did most of the talking, but, without her around, Jamie easily filled in the empty space. She talked about growing up in New York, where her dad was an investment banker and her mother served on the boards of several nonprofit organizations. Jamie did not have a strong New York accent, and Whitney suspected it was because she had spent every summer of her childhood with her grandparents in Iowa, where her mother had grown up. Jamie had gone to Dartmouth for her undergraduate degree, and had majored in sociology. Inspired by a desire to see a different part of the country, she moved to Louisiana after graduating to intern with a nonprofit organization. She ended up on a project to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. Jamie was a fascinating personality. She easily spent hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars on a single afternoon’s shopping trip, yet she had worked with some very poor people to make their lives better.

They ended up at J.Crew because Jamie wanted to pick up some cheap essentials. Whitney saw a price tag on a t-shirt that read $49.50, and could not take it anymore.

“Seriously, Jamie! Am I the only one at this law school who isn’t swimming in money?
This
is what you consider cheap? How can anyone afford this stuff?”