Personal Jurisdiction (20 page)

When the screen came up, she breathed a huge sigh of relief. She had two As, an A minus, and a B. The B was in Professor Neals’ class. She could have done without it, but overall she was pleased. If she could manage similar grades this semester, she would be in a decent position to secure a summer internship at a firm. She smiled. It was going to be a little easier to keep her resolution to be confident knowing that.

Her phone buzzed again and she grabbed for it, realizing she had not answered Elise. She was not sure if the first text had been due to good or bad news for Elise. This new text was from Alex. It read:
Prepare for the Apocalypse
. She shook her head in confusion and texted back:
What do you mean?
He answered simply:
You’ll see.

Alex was not kidding. Many law students started acting like the world was ending. It started with a string of increasingly frantic texts from Elise, who was sure that she was never going to get a firm job with the grades she received. Elise had received even better grades than Whitney, so Whitney was sure Elise would be alright. Then Jamie texted Whitney, angry because Lincoln was throwing a temper tantrum about his near-perfect grades for no reason. Whitney did not want anything to do with Lincoln right now. She could not handle his high-strung personality on a normal day, let alone today. When Whitney made the mistake of logging on to Facebook, she found her entire news feed filled with vague grade-related rants from law students.

The next day, the law school was full of stressed out students. When Whitney walked into her first class of the day to find more than one student in tears, she almost turned around and went home. She probably would have gone home after that first class, had it not been for Alex. He grabbed her arm after class and whispered in her ear, “Will you go grab a coffee with me, please?” He sounded desperate, and Whitney was eager to escape the law school, so she agreed and followed him outside. He promptly hailed a cab, and she looked at him in confusion.

“There’s no way we are going to a coffee shop anywhere within a mile radius of the law school,” he said. “I want to get as far away from these crazy people as I can.”

They hopped into a cab, and the cab driver asked where they were heading. Alex turned and asked Whitney, “Actually, Whit, would you be up for just taking a day off? I’m not sure I want to be anywhere near school today.”

Whitney nodded in agreement, and Alex directed the cab driver to take them to the corner of State and Randolph streets. Whitney did not care where they went, but she shared Alex’s sentiment about staying far away from the school. Everyone there was in a foul mood. Even Elise was getting on Whitney’s nerves, with her endless rant about how difficult it was going to be to get a firm job. Elise’s grades were fine. She was just being dramatic. Besides, even if Elise somehow did not get a firm job, she had plenty of other options and did not have to worry about paying any student loans. It was difficult for Whitney to be patient with her today.

The cabbie pulled up to the corner Alex had given him, and Whitney realized it was the famous Macy’s at State Street.

“Have you been here, yet?” Alex asked Whitney as he paid the driver.

“No, I haven’t,” Whitney said, following Alex out of the cab and into the building.

“You’re in for a treat!” he said, and led her through a maze of handbags and cosmetics until they reached an escalator and took it down a level. “First things first. Let’s get some coffee.”

There was a Starbucks on this lower level, and they ordered drinks. Whitney pulled out her wallet to get some cash, but Alex waved her away. “My treat,” he said.

After they got their drinks, Alex led her back up the escalator and then to an elevator bank. They rode the elevator up several floors, and Alex took her to a railway in the middle of the store. “Look up,” he said, and Whitney found herself looking at a beautiful mosaic ceiling.

“It’s the famous Tiffany and Company mosaic ceiling,” Alex said. “This building is really old, and used to be the Marshall Field’s building. It’s a historic landmark now. You probably noticed it’s big. The building takes up an entire city block.”

Whitney clutched her coffee cup and stared up at the ornate ceiling. “It’s beautiful.”

Alex smiled. “Sure beats staring at a bunch of freaked out law students all day, huh?”

Whitney groaned. “Elise is driving me crazy. She’s literally acting like her professional life has come to an end. And her grades were completely decent.”

Alex nodded. “Tell me about it. Ben locked himself in his room last night. Don’t tell him I told you this, but I think he cried.”

Whitney’s eyes widened. “You can’t be serious?”

Alex shrugged. “I think he did. And he has been a total grump all day. I knew this was going to happen. You have all these people who have been the best at everything their entire lives, and all of a sudden they realize that they did not get perfect grades. I mean, it’s a curved grading system, so a lot of people have to make less than an A plus. But no one here thinks it’s going to be them who—oh horrors!—gets an A minus. Or, God forbid, a B plus!”

The sarcasm in Alex’s voice was thick. Whitney wished Alex had not said anything to her about Ben’s reaction to grades. Hearing that Ben cried about grades made her wonder again whether he had only acted interested in her during midterms so that he could share her study notes.

Whitney looked over at Alex, who had fallen silent and was staring over the railing. He had a faraway look in his deep brown eyes, and did not seem to be focusing on anything in particular. Whitney stared at him, taking in his defined jaw line that had just a hint of stubble on it. Whitney had to admit that Elise was right about Alex. He was exceptionally good-looking.

“Were you happy with your grades?” Alex asked all of a sudden. Whitney was a little surprised that he asked, since it was considered bad form to ask or tell what your grades were. She had only pulled the information out of Elise because Elise was acting like the world had ended, and Whitney was genuinely worried for her. Alex was a good friend though, and he tried to stay away from most of the overhyped drama at law school.

“I was happy. They weren’t all A pluses, but they were decent,” Whitney said. “What about you?”

“I’m okay with them. I wish I had done a little better, but don’t we all? And even if I have mediocre grades, I’m still getting a diploma from a highly ranked law school. I guess it all evens out.”

Whitney nodded. Silence fell over the pair again, as they watched the people milling around the department store. Whitney imagined them all as carefree individuals, with time and money to spare. They were free from the worries of law school and student loans, browsing happily through designer merchandise with lattes in hand. Whitney giggled as she realized that someone viewing her right now could imagine the same things about her. You never knew what kind of things people were dealing with below the surface.

“What’s so funny?” Alex asked.

“Oh, nothing. I was just thinking about how deceiving appearances can be sometimes.”

“Very true,” Alex said, taking a final swig from his coffee cup. “So, what do you want to do today? Have you been to Willis Tower yet?”

Whitney made a face. “No, why? Do I look like I have ‘tourist’ stamped across my forehead?”

“Come on! You should go at least once!” Alex said. “And a freezing weekday morning in January is the perfect time. You won’t have to deal with nearly as many of those dreaded ‘tourists.’”

“Fine,” Whitney said. “But then I get to pick our lunch spot.”

“Deal!” Alex turned to head back toward the elevators. The pair made their way outside and grabbed a cab.

Half an hour later, Whitney and Alex were in an elevator zooming up to the 103rd floor of the Willis Tower, where they would have a 360 degree birds’ eye view of Chicago from its tallest building. As Alex had promised, the tourist attraction was relatively quiet, and they were able to walk around and take in the view without fighting a big crowd. There were glass ledges that jutted out from the building and allowed you to literally stand on glass over 1300 feet above the ground. Alex was keen to do this, but Whitney was not so sure.

“Come on, Whitney, it’s perfectly safe. They make these things a bazillion times stronger than they need to be.”

“A bazillion is not a real number. Plus, didn’t you hear about how they cracked once while people were standing on them?”

“That was just the coating that cracked, not the glass. Come on, don’t be a chicken.”

“Fine. I guess if I die then I don’t have to worry about paying any of my debt anymore.”

“Don’t be so morbid. Come on,” Alex said, and grabbed her hand to drag her onto the glass ledge. He pressed his face against the window as he stood on the glass ledge. Then he lay on his stomach on the glass and looked straight down. “This is awesome!” he said, his voice slightly muffled. Whitney shook her head in amusement.

“You’re ridiculous,” she said. “You should go skydiving or something.”

Alex rolled onto his back and smiled up at her. “Maybe we should!”

“Ugh, not me. No way. Now get off the ground. If you don’t die from falling through the glass you’re going to die of the diseases you catch from being on that nasty floor!”

Alex just laughed and held his hand out for Whitney to help him up. She grabbed it and he hoisted himself back onto his feet. They started making their way toward the elevators to head back down. “So, where are we going for lunch?”

“Xoco,” Whitney said. “It’s a Rick Bayless restaurant based on the concept of Mexican street food. I’ve been dying to try it.”

Alex’s face brightened. “Excellent idea.”

Whitney smiled. “I thought you would think so, Mr. Foodie!”

They took a cab to Xoco, and Alex insisted on covering the cab fare again. When they arrived they each ordered a caldo, which was a hearty soup. Whitney got the seafood caldo and Alex ordered the pork belly caldo, and they both agreed that Rick Bayless was God’s gift to humanity. Whitney had never been out to eat with Alex, except quick lunches at chain restaurants like Panera or Chipotle, and it was fun to watch his eyes light up as he described the different flavors in his caldo and why they were so amazing together. They ordered churros for dessert at Alex’s insistence, and Whitney was glad they did. Although she was not a fan of churros, the ones they ate at Xoco were nothing like the greasy, bland churros Whitney was accustomed to from many of her usual restaurant haunts back in Texas. These were fresh, hot, and the perfect combination of crispy and chewy. Not to mention the chocolate sauce they got for dipping was divine.

At some point in the middle of eating her second churro, Whitney realized she had not thought about grades, student loans, or Ben for the entire meal. She also had not checked her phone for several hours. She almost felt like she was on vacation. When Alex got up to use the restroom, Whitney pulled her phone out and saw she had six texts from Elise and three from Jamie. A quick scan through the texts revealed they were more rants about grades. She put her phone away without answering them. There would be plenty of time to worry about grades, jobs, and schoolwork later. For now, she was going to pretend she was one of those carefree shoppers at Macy’s, with nothing to worry about except which fabulous Chicago locale to visit next.

By the time Whitney finally read through all of her text messages later that night, Elise was in a frenzy. There were several texts in a row about her grades, each more frantic than the one before. When it became apparent that Whitney was not answering, they turned into texts demanding to know where Whitney was, alternating between upset and worried. The last text was in all caps.
I’M WORRIED ABOUT YOU. WHERE ARE YOU? CALL ME!

Whitney sighed and dialed Elise’s number.

“Whitney!” Elise shrieked into the phone. “Where the hell have you been? You just totally disappeared after our first class. I’ve been worried sick about you.”

“I’m sorry. Alex and I just decided we didn’t want to be around the law school today. We took a day to do some fun things and relax. We even went to Willis Tower! I needed a break from the crazy.”

“Wait a minute. You spent the whole day with Alex?” Elise’s voice sounded suspicious. “I thought you were still into Ben.”

“I am still into Ben. Alex and I were out as
friends
. You know he gets as fed up with the law school bullshit as I do. We wanted to escape it for a little bit.”

“Okay,” Elise said, but she still sounded suspicious. Whitney decided to try to steer the subject away from boys.

“Are you alright? I’m sorry I didn’t answer your texts sooner. I forgot to pay attention to my phone while I was out.”

“I’m fine. I wanted to see if you and Jamie would come over for a girls’ night tonight. Chicago style, pizza and beer!” Elise’s voice brightened noticeably. Whitney flopped backwards on her couch and considered. The last thing she wanted to do right now was go back out. She had changed into sweats and was looking forward to lounging lazily on her couch. Elise must have known that Whitney was waffling, because she started pleading.

“Please! Jamie said she would come if you do. This day sucked and I want to relax. Bring clothes for tomorrow and you can just spend the night so you’re already close to school in the morning.”