Personal Jurisdiction by Diana Minot Read Free Book Online

Neals reducing Elise to a blabbering mess. To her credit, she did not cry. Whitney was pretty sure she would have. It was clear that Elise had carefully read the case and knew the details, but no matter how she answered Professor Neals, he ridiculed her answers. He would ask her the same question over and over, and although he found each new answer she gave equally unsatisfactory, he gave no clues as to what answer he might actually consider correct. Whitney watched in awe, her laptop screen remaining as blank as Alex’s notebook. It was hard to take notes when you had no idea what answer the Professor wanted. Lincoln, of course, continued to type furiously. Whitney regretted sitting next to him this morning. Now she was stuck by him and his fanatic typing for the rest of the semester.
    After forty-five minutes had passed, Professor Neals took a long pause following one of Elise’s answers. The room was completely silent, as even Lincoln’s typing ended. Professor Neals looked around the room in a long-suffering manner, as though this morning had quite literally been the most trying morning of his life. “Does anyone else think they could help Ms. Young decipher this hopelessly complex case?” The sarcasm dripping in his voice was so heavy that Whitney almost expected it to physically appear as little rivers running out of his mouth. The room remained silent. “Anyone?” Whitney was sitting on her hands, desperately praying that she would not be Professor Neals’ next victim, when she saw Lincoln raise his hand slowly. Was he crazy?
    “Ah, Mr. Reed, shall we continue, then?” Professor Neals said, without, of course, asking Lincoln for his name. What followed over the next ten minutes was the most incredible mental sparring match Whitney had ever witnessed. Professor Neals mocked Lincoln’s replies, but Lincoln reframed his answers quickly without missing a beat or appearing intimidated. As class came to an end, Professor Neals complimented Lincoln. “Excellent work, Mr. Reed. Ms. Young, I advise you to learn from Mr. Reed’s performance and try harder next time.” Whitney realized her lower jaw was hanging open when Alex reached over and gently pushed it shut.
    “Show’s over, Kid,” he said, amused. His notebook was still as blank as her laptop screen. Whitney just shook her head as she started packing up her things.
    “What the heck just happened? Was that some kind of mental masturbation or something? I don’t understand half of what he said.” Whitney was not sure if she was directing this question to Alex or Lincoln. They both just shrugged.
    “Poor Elise,” Jamie said. Whitney had to agree. That was a pretty rough first day. They caught up with Elise as they left the classroom. She was standing by the door waiting for them, looking a little shell shocked.
    “Oh my god, guys! That was brutal! And Lincoln, what the heck! Way to be a total gunner and throw me under the bus.” Lincoln looked sheepish, but Whitney knew he had no regrets and was proud of himself for impressing Professor Neals. As they stood by the door, Ben walked out, followed by Kate and Crystal. Ben smiled at Whitney and she felt her stomach do a delightful little somersault.
    “Hey, guys. Man, Elise, sorry about that. Don’t worry, though. He does that to everyone, I’m told,” Ben said.
    Kate snorted. “Yeah, right. Everyone except Lincoln.” Whitney looked at Lincoln, expecting him to say something to brush off Kate’s rude comments to Elise. He was too busy staring at her boobs, which were slightly overflowing from her tight tank top. Even the smartest men can go dumb around a good pair of boobs, thought Whitney, and stealthily looked to see whether Ben was also checking out Kate’s boobs. But Ben had turned his attention to his phone, which was buzzing. He stepped away from the group to take the incoming call, and Kate continued demeaning Elise. “Seriously, did you not pay attention when everyone said Professor Neals