Unexpected

Chapter 4

Back at our home-away-from-home, I made a sandwich and took it, along with some more fruit and a local beer, out on the veranda to eat. I plugged my iPod into the dock provided by the resort and putting my feet up on the deck rails, I looked out at the crystal blue waters of the Caribbean, perfectly content with my life.

The surreal-ness of the situation hit me as I was finishing up my food, and I stood up and danced wildly to Weezer’s ‘Island in the Sun.’ Nothing like a solo dance party to celebrate living in a dream, right? I shimmied and shaked all the way around the wrap-around veranda, which was a considerable distance, figuring I could count it as my cardio for the day.

Once I returned to my original spot, exhausted by the sudden outburst of energy, I collapsed into my deck chair, contemplating just how sad it would be to waste what little time I had on Mustique with a nap. I decided if I slept on the deck, at least then I'd be doing something I couldn’t exactly be doing at home.

I was awoken a few hours later by a knock on the door. Curious as to who it could be, as Maggie obviously had her own key, I opened the door to find a woman dressed in the familiar Mustique Company uniform standing there, with a bottle of champagne under one arm and a letter in the other.

“Ms. Davis asked if I could bring this by for you,” she said, holding out the note.

I thanked the woman and took both the champagne and the note, closing the door behind me. I tore open the envelope and read:

Charlie,

I’m committing the biggest girl sin ever and ditching my bestie for a guy--I’m going to hang out with Jack (just Jack, not the pair of idiots he’s here with--they’re already back at the beach or at a bar or God knows where) for the rest of today. I’m hoping my years of loyal friendship to you will allow you to find it in your heart to forgive me. I’m also bribing you with the champagne, although that was mostly Jack’s idea. But I know that booze is the way to your heart, so I agreed it was an excellent suggestion. Please don’t hate me, I love you. Talk soon,

Maggie

PS: As an FYI, Jack’s staying in Grasshopper and his last name is Robinson, should you need to alert the authorities that I have gone missing.

I laughed as I read it -- although it was the only actual letter I’d ever gotten from her, it was pure Maggie from beginning to end. It must have killed her not to have just been able to send a text, she was a texting fool at home. She’d often text me when we were each in our individual bedrooms at the apartment, just to see what I was doing. Sometimes she’d even text me when we sitting in the SAME room, just because she could. She also constantly instant messaged me during the classes we had together, particularly after a classmate would make an idiotic comment or ask a stupid question when the professor was clearly about to let us go early.

I had a momentary pang of sadness as it really hit home that we were all done with school. I certainly wouldn’t miss the "school" part of law school, but I would miss the friendship and camaraderie that came with it. Law school was a lot like high school, particularly the first year, as the entire class takes the same courses and spends the entire day at the school. First year students are prohibited from working, due to the heavy course load, so your entire life is law school that year. After surviving our first year, I had felt like I had known my classmates for my entire life--they were more like family than friends. Albeit highly competitive family members, but family nonetheless.

And now that family was spread all throughout the country, as people had moved to where they were planning to sit for the bar -- each state has its own bar exam that you must pass it in order to practice law there. So my friends moved to the states where they were targeting their job search--I had close friends in New York City, Seattle, Las Vegas, St. Louis. I had my vacations pretty much all planned out for the next few years, as I really hadn’t traveled much before but now I had the perfect excuse: I would love to see my friends, and in turn, all the new cities they were living in.