Colin flew to Joshua’s side and peered over his shoulder. “Oh my god,” he breathed out. Halfway down the Cs he read:Colin Michael Campbell-Abrams. “Oh my god, Josh. I passed.” He turned to look at Joshua, his eyes still wide. “Holy fuck,” Colin breathed out. “I’m alawyer.”
Joshua laughed out loud, his face alight with joy, and he flung his arms around Colin’s neck. “You did it! You aced it!”
“I dunno if I aced it,” Colin said. He hugged Joshua tight while blowing out a shuddering breath. “They don’t tell us our scores.”
“Not atall?” Joshua said, leaning back to look at him. “That hardly seems fair.”
“They’ll tell me the percentage. Comes in a letter.” Colin fell onto his chair and raised both hands to card his fingers through his sandy hair. “Hey! Check for Dan’s name!”
Joshua turned back to the screen and quickly found Dan’s name. “He passed!”
Colin nodded, and blew out a breath. “Thank god,” he sighed out.
“I’m calling the guys,” Joshua blurted, grabbing his phone from his pocket. “We have to have a get-together. We have to celebrate.” But he stopped when he felt Colin grip his hand and heard his choked voice whisper: “I can’tbelieveit, Josh.”
Joshua lowered the phone and knelt at his husband’s feet. “You can’t?” he asked. He reached to caress Colin’s cheek. “I never doubted it for a split second,” he said. “Not for one split second. You took on law school like the knight in shining armor that you are, and you beat it to its knees.” He lowered his head for a moment and when he lifted it again, Colin saw that his chocolate-brown eyes were misty with tears. “I am so proud of you, Colin,” Joshua whispered. “There are no words that could ever describe my pride in you, my pride in all you’ve accomplished. You’re a champion in every sense of the word.”
Colin bent and wrapped Joshua in his arms. “You need to know,” he said, his voice suddenly strangled, “that this never could have happened without you. You were my oak through every struggle, just like you always are.” He tipped Joshua’s face to his and kissed him. “You got me through it. Thank you, my love.”
For a few timeless moments they clung to each other, both breathless with joy, then Colin leaned back and grinned. “Christ, I need a stout! Call the guys!”
* * *
When they entered McCafferty’s,a cacophony of noise arose from the table where their friends sat waiting. “All hail the newest Charlottesville’s ADA!” Nate yelled, while David, Trent, and Jeff applauded and cheered. Colin flushed and lifted his hand to ask for silence, but the cheers and well-wishes continued until they were seated.
“Here’s your celebratory stout,” Trent said, grinning as he sat a filled glass in front of Colin. “Well done, buddy!”
David Gardener, Nate’s husband, Colin and Joshua’s best friend, and the most well-loved professor at the University of Virginia stood and lifted his glass. “Here’s to Colin, who fought his way through the most insane law school schedule I’ve ever witnessed to pass the bar with flying colors.”
“DidI pass with flying colors?” Colin said, laughing as he lifted his glass. “I only know I passed. I don’t know my score.”
“What was your MPRE score?” David asked.
“What the hell isthat?” Jeff asked.
“The Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination,” Colin muttered. “I took that in March.” He took another long swallow of his stout. “Ohhh, god, I needed this!” He turned to Jeff. “It’s the ethics portion of the bar exam. I got a ninety-seven.”
“When do you get your bar exam score?” Trent asked.
“I don’t,” Colin told him. “More’s the pity.”
“Youdon’t?” Trent blurted out.
“He’ll get a scaled score,” David told them. “Probably come in the mail in a week or so.” He leaned toward Colin and tugged him closer. “I don’t know what you got on the MBE,” he said, his voice low enough not to be overheard by the others. “But Idoknow your essay score.”
“How?” Colin asked.
“Merritt told me,” David confided. “He was one of the professors working with the bar examiners.”
“Well?” Colin asked, his voice edgy with impatience. “Whatwasit?”
“Your scaled score was 192,” David said, clasping his arm. “Colin, that’s fantastic! That’s sixty percent of your total so it’s...” David stopped, obviously doing math in his head. “It’s around 115.” He grinned and shook Colin’s arm. “If your MBE score was anywhere close, you could be in the 98th percentile range!”
Colin nodded, then polished off the last of his stout and circled his finger in the air to ask for another round for the table. “This one’s on me,” he told his friends. “Tonight, I’m celebrating.”
“You damn well should be,” Jeff told him. “We’re proud of you, Irish.”
Joshua rose and moved to the jukebox. After picking several songs he wandered back and held out his hand to Colin who grinned at him. “What’s up, bud?”
