Unexpected

Chapter 1

A/N: Please vote and comment, if you'd like, thanks!! S

“Charlie! Charlie! Charlotte Maxwell!!” I could hear my roommate Maggie shouting my name, but couldn’t actually see her, given the crush of people surrounding me at our law school graduation party. A group of us University of Nebraska College of Law graduates had gotten together and rented a ballroom at a downtown hotel and bought a few kegs of beer for our guests.

As it was later in the evening, most of our elderly relatives had long since gone and it was just fellow graduates, friends, and underclassmen at the party--the underclassmen were there under the pretense of saying goodbye and wishing us well, but we all knew they were primarily in it for the free beer. The best way to get a law student to show up to any event was to promise free food or free beer, or even better, free food AND free beer. Although, come to think of it, that probably holds true for the rest of the population as well.

I finished up the conversation I was having with one of my best friends from undergrad and stepped past some of the partygoers to get to Maggie’s side. She looked fantastic as usual, her rich brown hair in waves around her shoulders still perfect despite the long day of events. She was wearing a simple but stylish black maxi dress that fit her fabulously, somehow showing off her toned figure despite its loose fit.

Her dress must have been new because I didn’t recognize it and God knows, after two years of living together, we had each other’s wardrobes memorized, although her’s was much more extensive than mine. I made a mental note to ask her if she planned on bringing the dress on vacation as I’d love to borrow it--we were pretty much exactly the same size, although as I had a slightly more athletic build and was a couple of inches taller at 5’8”, I often couldn’t borrow her dresses as what was a fingertip-length dress on her became indecently short when I put it on.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“Thinking we should head out soon--we need to be at the airport at 4 to get checked in and it’s already almost midnight. We should have plenty of time to get our bags from the apartment and head to Omaha for our flights. You good to leave now?"

Although normally I hated to leave a party early--particularly my own party--I nodded and linked my arm with hers and we headed for the door, saying our goodbyes and giving out hugs on our way. Knowing we were basically leaving right from the party, neither of us had even drank anything but I’d still had a great time celebrating with everyone.

Stepping out into the cool early-May-in-Nebraska night, I felt a rush of pure glee shoot through me. Despite the late hour and my general exhaustion, I was positively giddy because not only was I done with school for my natural born life, I was also mere hours away from going on the most amazing, incredible vacation-of-a-lifetime with Maggie.

Two weeks of sand and sun on the beautiful island of Mustique. For a solidly lower middle class kid like myself, a trip like this was beyond anything I’d ever thought to experience. Vacationing on an exclusive private island would have likely remained beyond my reach for my entire life, except Maggie’s parents just happened to be millionaires and booked this getaway as a reward for my friend having survived law school. Since they didn't want her to go alone, as her roommate, I was the lucky ‘chaperone’ she chose to join her.

Maggie’s parents had insisted on paying for everything for both of us and wouldn't hear of me contributing a cent (I'm sure it was fairly obvious to them that I couldn't even afford the plane ticket to a place like that, never mind the cost of the resort). Out of curiousity, I tried looking up online what a two bedroom villa like the one we're staying in there would cost and the website wouldn't even tell me, you have to email or call them to even get a quote for the prices. I figured this was a case of ignorance is bliss and didn't pursue it any further. I already felt incredibly overwhelmed by their generosity, I'd rather not know just how much I'm indebted to them for this amazing trip. Who would have thought randomly befriending a girl in the line to get pictures our first day of law school orientation would pay such incredible dividends?

Maggie was awesome too, if it weren’t for her somewhat fancy car, I would have never guessed she had such a privileged upbringing. When we moved in together after our first year of law school, she had a similar collection of slightly ratty hand-me-down furniture to mine and she was never at all extravagant with her spending. It was only when I went home with her to celebrate her birthday that year and saw her parent’s house that I realized how wealthy her family was. But that had no relevance to our relationship at all--Maggie Davis was just a smart, funny, chill girl...whose parents happened to own half of Omaha. No big deal.

I couldn’t wait for a break from what seemed like an eternity of stress and study. I hadn’t always been so laser-focused on school--I used to be an interesting, well balanced person, I swear. I was up-to-date on current events--I knew all the latest celebrity dirt AND was somewhat knowledgeable about actual world events. I used to be fun and flirtatious and witty. I was a good friend and a good daughter and a good sister. If you wanted a fun date to take to your fraternity function, I was your girl. No drama and lots of laughs.

But for the last three years, all I did was eat, sleep, and drink (and I do mean drink) law school. All I ever did was study or think about how I should have been studying. And drink--that was one of the only remaining resemblances left from my college days.

My contracts professor said it best: “law students are fit only for each other’s company.” What she meant is that no one else should have to endure our ridiculous conversations about obscure, ancient legal cases and inside jokes about ridiculous things like “blackacre” (don’t ask, trust me, it’s not that funny). Occasionally, I could get drunk enough when I was out at the bar (always with my classmates, we tended to travel in packs) to carry on a somewhat normal conversation with another similarly inebriated guy and I had even managed a couple of pretty decent make out sessions.

But there was no way I could ever even think about starting a relationship with someone not in school with me, and thinking about dating a classmate was even worse--we were together so much that it would feel almost incestuous. Not that a lot of my friends hadn’t done it (dated and/or hooked up with fellow law students, not the whole incest thing) but it just had no appeal to me at all. All I had the capacity for was school, getting drunk, and sleeping. On constant repeat.

I think part of my problem was that I had never really needed to study much before. Sure, I had pulled a few overnighters to get papers done in undergrad and did the occasional cram session before a big test. But that was it. It wasn’t that I was some sort of genius or anything -- school just came somewhat easy to me.

Or it used to, at least. Nothing about law school was easy, the study and preparation required for each class was intense. For someone that had never really done something like that...well, it's no wonder I had no space left in my life for anything else. I had no idea what's going on with the latest reality tv or even anything about any movies in the theatre, and I used to LOVE pop culture.

BUT! BUT! After three long years, I was finally, FINALLY done with law school. I still had the bar exam to take at the end of summer, which I had to pass in order to be licensed to practice law, but I had a month of freedom before my bar preparation class began. And during that month, I fully planned to pretend that that whole bar exam thing didn’t even exist. Paradise, watch out, because Charlotte Maxwell's on her way!