Personal Jurisdiction by Diana Minot Read Free Book Online Page B

Whitney was testing the waters. She wanted to know if Ben seemed defensive of Kate. After watching Kate this week, it was obvious that she was interested in Ben. Kate tried to sit by him in every class and was always “casually” tagging along wherever he went, nodding enthusiastically at everything he said even if it was just a comment about how weak the coffee at the school’s on-site café was. Not that Whitney did not want to do the same thing. But she refused to be so embarrassingly obvious about it.
    Ben shrugged. “She’s probably just glad it wasn’t her.” Whitney was not sure how to interpret that statement, and decided to just let it go. She tried to think of something else to say. She could ask more questions about schoolwork, but there were so many other things she would rather discuss with him.
    “So, you’re Alex’s roommate, right?” Whitney decided this was a safe place to start.
    “Yeah, I met him last spring, and we hit it off. I’m a little embarrassed to admit this but I’ve never lived on my own, and I was nervous to start now. After college I worked in L.A. for a while, and everyone had a roommate. It was easier, you know, always having someone down to hang out…” Ben trailed off, seeming unsure of what else to say. Whitney thought that if not wanting to give up the roommate thing was the only reason he had to be embarrassed, then he was not doing too badly.
    “I thought you said you were from San Francisco?”
    “Yeah, I grew up in the Bay Area, and I went to Stanford for undergrad. But then I worked in L.A. for a few years. In finance.”
    There it was. Stanford. Of course he had gone to an Ivy League school. His job had probably been amazing, too—something you would actually want on your résumé when you started interviewing with law firms. Whitney was getting tired of hearing the same story with slightly varying details: Ivy League school, kick-ass job, parents bankrolling some or all of law school. It was all anyone had talked about this week, and it was getting old. She knew Ben was about to ask her for details of her own background, and she did not want to talk about it. Not only because she was embarrassed at her lack of accomplishments compared to him and everyone else in this group of overachieving Type As, but also because she was getting downright bored with the subject.
    She had called Rachel on Wednesday to complain about how left out she felt, and Rachel had been uncharacteristically unsympathetic. First, Rachel, who had never been a fan of Whitney’s law school plans, said “I told you so.” Whitney felt like that was a shitty thing for a best friend to say. That is something your mom says to you, or maybe your know-it-all coworker. Not your best friend. Besides, Whitney was not saying law school had been a mistake, or that she was giving up. She was just saying she had had a rough first week and was feeling out of place. Then, Rachel had gone on about how accomplished Whitney was, pointing out that she had a Bachelor’s degree, even if it was not from an Ivy League school. And Whitney had done well at her job and received a promotion to management. So what if it was not a prestigious internship or glamorous position at a startup? She had done good, substantive work. Why not just be thankful for what she had? Whitney had hung up the phone feeling even more alone.
    “Whitney? Whitney, are you still with me?” Ben’s voice brought Whitney out of her reverie.
    “What? Yeah, sorry. Just…I don’t know. Long week.”
    “Ha, well, I’m sure my tirade about the world of finance is not helping any. What about you? What were you doing before deciding you were crazy enough to subject yourself to law school?”
    “I went to the University of Texas. Majored in English. Worked in a call center. That’s about it.” Whitney had found that the less details she offered about her life before law school, the less confused people seemed to be. And her short responses