All Chapters of Unexpected Arrivals: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Other than kids, the one thing Cora and I had avoided like the plague was our plans after graduation. Neil and I had talked openly about buying a small financial firm and joining their team once we had our diplomas in hand, but Cora planned to go to grad school—although she hadn't said where. "We're going to have to talk about it at some point, Cora." I tried to reason with her when she walked in on Neil and me discussing businesses to consider. He politely excused himself, leaving the two of us alone. "Why ruin the end of our senior year when we don't have to, James?" She flitted about the kitchen putting away the groceries she'd bought. I loved the way she hummed a song I'd never heard trying to placate me into denial. It was endearing even though ineffective. "It doesn't have to ruin anything." I followed behind her in a perfectly choreographed dance, taking items from her to put them in places she couldn't reach in an effortless display of teamwork—we worked togethe

The compromise ended up with Cora picking Cornell Tech in the heart of New York City to pursue an engineering degree. She'd taken math and science classes, but I didn't believe that was what she'd intended to do on the other side of the country. It had been a possible path she'd tossed around, yet unlike everything else she did, this was the one thing she'd never had a firm grasp on. Cora had floundered with career choices, and in all honesty, I believed her desire to go to grad school stemmed from her inability to pick a direction. If she continued with school, it bought her more time to be indecisive. Even with her concession, she didn't seem the least bit upset with her choice. Hannah had decided to go to culinary school at The Michelin Institute on Long Island. She and Neil were getting their own place, and Cora and I were going in search of one ourselves. Neil had become a miser since his parents lost their fortunes—he'd give Scrooge a bad name. Somehow, he'd managed to pay

By the time we finally made it to New York, we needed a day in the hotel to recoup before embarking on housing and businesses. The plan had been for Cora and Hannah to enroll in courses for the fall while Neil and I looked at a handful of companies. Until we saw where the physical locations of these places were, it didn't make sense to find a place to live and end up two hours away because we hadn't planned well. The girls hadn't been on their own longer than an hour before Cora called, hysterical about Hannah refusing to get on the subway. Cora had grown up in White Plains, so where being in the city wasn't unfamiliar to her, Hannah was a small-town girl from Idaho. I swore it was the lost state. No one was from Idaho. Other than potatoes, I couldn't think of a single thing Idaho had. Whatever it was hadn't prepared Hannah for the city. "James, she won't go back down the stairwell to the subway." "Why? What happened?" She didn't have any phobias I was aware of.

"Thank God for GPS. We would never have found this place. The outskirts of town—try Timbuctoo." The club was nondescript from the exterior—the owners hadn't believed in curb appeal, that was for sure. "Obscure can be good, right?" She hopped out of the car before I had a chance to answer. Hand in hand, we went to the back of the line. The place was packed. The club was well run, or the band was a local favorite—either way, something brought customers in droves. While we waited, we determined it wasn't the band that had people flocking to the place. "James, the music is horrible. We don't have to stay." Suddenly, Cora looked around at the crowd surrounding us as if she were turned off. "We're already here. We might as well see what's going on inside. If we don't like it, we can leave, right?" It hadn't dawned on me until Cora's eyes darted from person to person that we were slightly out of place. However, no one besides us seemed to notice or care. We paid the

"You care to tell me how you got arrested for driving while intoxicated?" I couldn't tell if Neil was truly pissed, or if he thought the situation was absurd. "Does it matter, jackass? Just come get me." "Yeah, see I'm not sure how you think I'm going to do that in the middle of a workday when my partner didn't show up this morning." "Neil, this shit isn't funny. I used my call to get in touch with your stupid ass because I was afraid Cora wouldn't hear her phone. I don't care if you have to close the place down, come bail me out." "Where am I going to get bail money, Carp?" "Try the fucking bank. There's plenty in the business account. I'll replace whatever you have to use tomorrow." "They haven't told you what they set bail at?" "Dude, no one's told me shit other than I was under arrest. Don't make me call a fucking lawyer." "Calm down. I'll send Hannah after you. She should be out of class at this point. We'll figure it out." "Thanks, man