Personal Jurisdiction (14 page)

“Good girl,” Elise said, in a tone that annoyed Whitney. Elise sometimes had a tendency to praise Whitney like she was a child in need of guidance.

“He wanted to go back to his place, but by then I was wavering. Besides, the moment was broken, so I decided to just go home. He hasn’t seemed interested in talking to me since.” Whitney had been staring down at her coffee cup, but now she looked up at Elise and Jamie, waiting to hear their verdict on the matter.

“Well, first of all, I don’t think your refusal to sleep with him one time is the problem. But, if it is, that’s not okay for him to act like this,” Jamie said, crossing her arms.

Elise was less subdued. “What an asshole. I thought Alex was the one who couldn’t keep it in his pants, not Ben!”

“I actually don’t think that’s true about Alex,” Whitney said. “But, anyways, if that’s not it, I can’t figure out why Ben’s being distant.”

“I think this whole situation is being overblown,” Jamie said. “It has only been one day, and it was an exhausting week. I know as women we get antsy if there’s too much time between talking or texting, but men are clueless about that. Ben might literally have been exhausted and needing a night off from everything, like he said. I think you should give him some credit.”

Whitney furrowed her brow. She wanted to believe Jamie’s assessment of the situation, but she still felt uneasy about the sudden lack of communication. Ben had not been too tired in the middle of the frenzied week of studying to text her good night and good morning every single day, so why was he suddenly too tired to do either of those things? Whitney shrugged, unsure of what else to say.

Elise looked pensive. “The whole Kate thing is weird, too. Do you think she knows what you and Ben were doing in the library? Maybe she said something to Ben that somehow made him back off?”

“How in the world would she know? I can’t imagine Ben would share that information with her. And I haven’t told anyone other than you two. Besides, even if she threw a fit at him like she did at me, I don’t think that would exactly be the kind of thing that would make him want to leave me for her.”

“True,” Elise said. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if she knew that you and Ben almost had sex. She was probably listening outside your study room Thursday night, since she seems to be so into stalking him.

“Eww, you might be right,” Whitney said. Her face turned red at the idea of Kate listening in on her and Ben in the middle of their hot and heavy make out session. One thing was sure—she was not going to be engaging in any more half-naked activities in a law school library study room.

Jamie shuddered. “Kate’s a creep.”

“What are you going to do?” Elise asked.

“I don’t know,” Whitney said. “Wait a little bit longer, I guess. I hope Jamie’s right and I’m just blowing this out of proportion. I’ve really fallen for him.” Whitney’s voice started quivering and she let her sentence trail off. The sudden flood of emotions she felt had taken her off guard, and she did not want to start crying in the middle of the restaurant.

“Aw, Honey,” Elise said, reaching over to squeeze Whitney’s hand. “It’s going to be okay. I’m sure Jamie’s right.”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it. Let’s change the subject for a little bit. I’ve been dying for a chance to talk about myself, anyways. Way to hog the conversation, Whit,” Jamie said, in an overly dramatic tone.

The girls laughed and moved on to lighter subjects. Elise had picked up a new book on self-motivation and was eager to share tips on time management. Elise was a big self-help junkie, and Jamie loved to tease her about it. The resulting banter usually had great entertainment value, and Whitney managed to forget about Ben for a little while. The conversation and meal were a nice distraction. It felt good to relax after a stressful week, and the girls stayed huddled in their booth for nearly two hours, giggling and overdosing on gourmet coffee. By the time Whitney hugged Elise and Jamie goodbye and headed for the bus stop, her mood had lifted.

As she waited for the bus, she could not resist peeking at her phone. There was still no message from Ben. The only text she had received was from Alex, telling her he was definitely going to cash that rain check on dinner. Whitney sighed and put her phone away, vowing not to check it for the rest of the day. She went home and decided not to look at her casebooks or notes for the rest of the day, either. She deserved an afternoon to relax. She took a long, lavender-scented bath, and then painted both her toenails and fingernails with a dusty rose color. It had been too long since she had repainted her nails, and seeing them with a fresh coat of polish buoyed her spirits. She threw together a stir-fry for dinner using the random assortment of frozen vegetables she had left in her freezer, then settled down to search for a chick-flick on Netflix. By the time she settled into bed that evening, she felt much better. Surely, Ben was just taking a weekend to recuperate as well. She closed her eyes and smiled, drifting off to sleep while imagining his lips on hers.

Monday morning came, and Whitney still had not heard from Ben. She texted Rachel about the situation, and Rachel agreed with Jamie that Whitney was overreacting. Whitney was not convinced, and arrived at the law school feeling anxious. She was wearing a suit today, because there was an informational event this evening where representatives from several law firms would be visiting the school. She was not used to wearing a suit, since the dress code for her job in Texas had been pretty casual. The annoyance of the unfamiliar clothing combined with her nervousness over seeing Ben left her in a sour mood.

Whitney need not have worried about Ben, though. When she entered the room for her first class, Ben was not there. He did not show up for class at all the entire day. Alex said Ben was still asleep when he left the apartment that morning. When their last class ended and she still had not seen or heard from Ben, Whitney was genuinely worried. She decided at this point it was acceptable to send him a quick text.
Hey, are you okay? Just haven’t seen or heard from you in a bit. Hope everything’s alright!
She reworded the text about fifty times, and immediately regretted not changing the wording even more as soon as she hit send.

Elise was heading back to her apartment to change into a suit, and asked Whitney if she wanted to come along. Whitney agreed, glad to have a retreat available from the law school. On days like today, she wished that she lived closer to school. Most of the time the distance did not bother her, but on days with evening events, when it was impossible to run home between class and the event, the commute frustrated her. She would have loved to have worn leggings and UGGs all day like Elise had, instead of this uncomfortable suit. Not that Whitney owned a pair of UGGs. They were too expensive. She did have a pair of boots that looked just like them, though. She had bought them during an online clearance sale last spring in anticipation of her move to cold Chicago. Rachel referred to them as her “Fuggs,” short for “fake UGGs.” Whitney had not worn them yet because it had not been too unbearably cold so far.

When they arrived at Elise’s apartment, Whitney carefully took off her suit jacket and hung it on a dining room chair, then followed Elise into the bedroom where Elise kicked off her UGGs and started flipping through the ridiculous amount of clothing in her closet. They were probably going to be here a while.

“I thought you told Jamie that UGGs were ugly,” Whitney said as she flopped across Elise’s large bed.

“They are ugly. But for some ungodly reason they are widely accepted as appropriate footwear. I’m jumping on the bandwagon since you can’t deny how comfortable they are. You should get some,” Elise said, her voice coming out in a muffled tone from the back of her large walk-in closet.

Whitney smiled and rolled her eyes. Elise was a wonderful friend, but she was never going to understand Whitney’s lack of disposable income. Some days, Whitney found this unbearably annoying. Today, she was too preoccupied with other worries to care enough to remind Elise that she had no money. Elise walked into the room wearing a black suit skirt and a black lacy bra that Whitney imagined was the type of thing you would find in a Parisian boutique.

Elise held up two blouses, one cream colored and one a soft pink. “Which one?” she asked.

Whitney sat up and pointed to the pink one. “Why are you wearing such a nice bra, anyways? As far as I know you don’t have any big plans for the evening.”

Elise shook her finger at Whitney. “No, no, no. Wrong attitude. First of all, you should always look beautiful for yourself, because you’re worth it. Don’t roll your eyes at me. I know it’s cliché, but it’s true. Second of all, no, I don’t have any plans. But in the event an opportunity comes up, you want to be ready. My mother used to always tell me that you never know when you might meet your husband.”

“Or your next bang buddy,” Whitney said, her voice sarcastic.

Elise shrugged and raised an eyebrow. “It’s true. You never know when you might schedule a hot date for a library study session, after all.”

Whitney threw a pillow at Elise as Elise escaped back into the closet, laughing.

“By the way, what’s the latest on Ben? I noticed he was not in class at all today,” Elise called out from her closet.

Whitney sighed. “I don’t know. I still haven’t heard from him. When he didn’t show up all day I texted him to make sure he was okay. He still hasn’t answered.” Whitney checked her phone again just in case. Nothing.

“Did you ask Alex?”

“Alex said he was still sleeping when he left this morning.”

Elise came out of the closet and frowned. “That’s weird.”

She had switched to a pantsuit instead of a skirt suit. “It’s too damn cold for a skirt,” she said, in answer to Whitney’s questioning look. “Did Kate say anything to you today?”

“No, she seemed pretty subdued. But I was also going out of my way to avoid her.”

Elise nodded as she slipped on some black heels. She looked stunning, even in a conservative black suit. Whitney could never feel truly jealous of her friend, though. Elise was so kind to her, and so bubbly. It was impossible to hate her. Elise glanced at her watch.

“We should probably get going and get this over with,” Elise said. “I hate this kind of networking event. I mean, seriously, information tables? It’s pretty much just a boring job fair. I wish they’d do a cocktail hour instead.”

Whitney did not say much in response. She followed Elise out the door, and they made the short walk back to the law school as quickly as they could. The temperature was rapidly dropping, and the wind whipping at them from across Lake Michigan was bitterly cold. When they got to the law school atrium, informational tables were already set up from several different law firms. Whitney was content to follow Elise around to the different tables, letting her do most of the talking. Whitney should have done more research to know which firms interested her, but she had been too preoccupied over the last week with midterms and Ben to find the motivation to do anything extra.

About thirty minutes later, Elise was ready to leave. Whitney did not feel like staying much longer, either, and was beginning to wish she had just skipped the event and gone home after class. It had not been a productive thirty minutes for her. The only thing she had gained was a huge handful of colorful brochures from each firm on why that firm was different and was the best place to work. Each brochure said essentially the same thing.

As Elise and Whitney left the atrium and rounded the corner to a long hallway, they came face to face with Ben, Alex, and Kate. The three of them were all wearing suits and heading toward the atrium. Kate crossed her arms and gave Whitney a smug look.

“Ben!” Whitney exclaimed. “I was worried about you.”

“Sorry, I meant to text you back. I’m fine. Just taking a breather after midterms.”

Whitney was sure now that something was wrong. Ben was not talking to her the same way he had last week. There was no “Hey, beautiful.” There was no warmth in his voice. He sounded cautious and tense. Whitney looked at Alex, desperate for some understanding. Alex looked uncomfortable and confused. Whitney felt Elise grab her arm and start to pull her down the hallway toward the exit, just as Kate reached for Ben’s arm and pulled him in the opposite direction toward the atrium. Whitney’s back stiffened when she saw Kate touching Ben.

“No!” Whitney said, and tried to pull her arm away from Elise. Elise held on tighter and pulled harder in the direction of the door.

“Whitney,” Elise said, in a low tone of voice so that her words were not clear to Ben and Kate, “Let’s go. Now.”

Whitney allowed Elise to lead her, but her eyes welled up with tears as they reached the exit. She had no idea what had changed since Thursday night, but Ben acted as though nothing romantic had ever taken place between them. There had been so much chemistry last week in their study room. Surely, that had not been a one-sided feeling. Whitney wiped at her eyes and then realized that Alex had followed them.

“Whitney, are you okay?” He asked.

Whitney was irrationally angry at Alex. He must have known Ben was not interested anymore! He must have known Kate was closing in for the kill. “Why didn’t you tell me?” She hissed, and gave Alex a shove. Elise tried to pull her back.

“Whoa, Whitney! I had no idea!” Alex said.

“You were walking over here with both of them together! Don’t tell me you had no idea!”