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September 28, 2003 (The next day)
Just as he had said the night before, Marshall was ready to leave the hotel at nine o'clock on the dot; much to the dismay of his female companion. I can't believe he was actually serious about waking up this earlier...I think this is the first time I've ever gotten up before noon on any of my time off.
Noticing the mix between surprise and exhaustion on the younger woman's face caused Marshall to slightly smile a little before teasingly replying: "I'm guessing from the expression on your face that you're not much of a morning person."
"That's an understatement if I ever heard one."
Without even bothering to open her now closed eyes, Christina directed a middle finger towards her bodyguard, who was sitting in the passenger seat of the SUV; causing both him and Marshall to slightly chuckle.
Assholes.
"Hey, it looks like we're going to be stuck in a traffic for a while. So, if you want, you can use my shoulder as a pillow until we get there."
Surprised by that kind gesture, Christina slightly opened her eyes for a second--wondering if Marshall was being serious or not. But seeing that he wasn't even facing her direction--but interestingly enough outside the window--she guessed that he was. And who was she to argue with him?
If he's willing to share his shoulder, I'm willing to accept it.
With that being her last thought, Christina reluctantly laid her head on Marshall's shoulder and interestingly enough soon found herself being lulled fast asleep a second later.
"You want me to do the honors?" Ron questioned twenty minutes later when they finally reached their first destination of the day.
"Nah, I got it." Marshall surprisingly replied back before gently shaking Christina's body; slowly stirring her away from her slumber.
"Where are we?"
Without even bothering to outwardly answer her question, Marshall pointed a finger towards the window on Christina's side of the vehicle; causing her to quickly turn her head in that direction and furrow her eyebrows in confusion at what she saw. "You brought me to another hotel?"
While opening the door on his side of the truck, Marshall quickly replied back, in a matter-of-fact tone: "That's not just another hotel...it's the Stratosphere casino hotel."
"Home of the world's highest roller-coaster." Ron chimed in, while stepping out of the SUV himself. "I'm ashamed that you didn't know that."
"Sorry...I must've skipped that chapter in the Las Vegas guide to entertainment book." Christina sarcastically replied back, before letting Marshall help her down from the truck. "So, I'm guessing this is the reason that you got me up so early....? You wanted to avoid the lines for the highest roller-coaster in America."
"Pretty much...!" Marshall teasingly retorted, before dragging a reluctant Christina towards the entrance of the hotel; raising an eyebrow in curiosity as he noticed the look of horror on her face when they stepped into the elevator and she saw him press the button for floor nine hundred and nine. "You're not scared of heights, are you?"
"Isn't it a little too late to be asking me that question?" Christina outwardly snapped as the doors slid shut in front of them and they started to make there journey upwards.
"Don't pay her any mind...she just hates surprises." Ron whispered to the younger man; causing Marshall to slightly nod his head in understanding while never taking his eyes off the upset looking woman who was angrily watching on as the buttons in front of them continued to grow higher.
I am so going to kill Mya when we get back to the MGM and I don't care if she is fucking her boyfriend.
Two minutes later, Christina was finally able to stop looking at the buttons in front of her go up as the doors opened and Ron lead her and Marshall out of the elevator.
Well, he tried to, anyway. But before Christina could make a move to follow her bodyguard out of the vehicle, Marshall quickly stopped her; causing the younger woman to furrow her eyebrows in confusion.
What the..?
"If you want, we can just get back in the truck and go find something else to do...we don't have to go through with this if you don't want to."
Is he serious..?
Seeing in his eyes that he was and that he really had no problem turning around and going to find something else to do that pleased Christina as well, caused the younger woman to feel somewhat bad about being a bitch and slowly let down the wall that she had just recently built between her and Marshall in the last couple of minutes. "No, that's okay, we can get on it...I just--like Ron said--really hate surprises. I've hated them ever since I was a kid, it's nothing personal, believe me."
After waiting a second to make sure that she was really telling him the truth, Marshall finally nodded his head okay, before dramatically extending his arm out in front of Christina; jokingly replying: "After you, madam."
"Why thank you, kind sir." Christina teased back, before making her way towards where Ron was standing; Marshall following in tow.
"You guys ready?"
While turning her attention towards the machine, behind her bodyguard, that was labeled The High Roller, Christina inwardly prepared herself for what she was about to do, before outwardly retorting:
"As ready as we'll ever be."
(Four hours later)
"My god..I think, for the first time ever, I'm actually full."
"Now, there's a sentence I never thought I'd hear coming from your mouth." Ron playfully commented, before closing the back door to the SUV behind Marshall and getting into his regular seat up front near the driver.
Waiting until after they were on the open road, Marshall turned his attention towards Christina and outwardly wondered if she thought she could handle one more stop before they headed back to the hotel. "I sort of promised Hailie I'd go there before I left."
Even though she wanted nothing more than to just go back to her hotel room and sleep until it was time to board Mya's tour bus--where she'd sleep some more--the mention of the little girls name caused Christina to go against what she wanted. "As long as it doesn't turn me on my head or have me puking up what I just ate, I'm all yours."
"Great.." Marshall half-jokingly retorted, before turning his attention back towards the window beside him; refusing to speak again until they reached the drivers assigned destination.
"You've got to be kidding me..."
"Did I mention that my daughter has my weird sense of humor?" Marshall playfully wondered outloud while opening the door to his right; afterwards grabbing Christina by her hand, slowly helping her out of the truck.
"No, but I can see it now." The younger woman absentmindedly retorted while slowly following the blonde rapper towards the entrance of M&M's world. "So, what does she want from here?"
While quickly scanning the large store for anything that resembled something his daughter might like, Marshall slightly shrugged his shoulders in defeat before nonchalantly replying: "Anything with the words M&M on it is probably acceptable to her."
Why don't I find that hard to believe? Christina inwardly thought to herself, before taking off in the direction of the boy's department; wondering if she could find something for her little brother while she was there. As long as it's black and has a sword on it, I'm sure he'll automatically like it.
After slowly searching through the little boy's section for anything that looked like something that Mikey might like, Christina finally found a black T-shirt with a star-wars style M&M on it, just as Marshall popped up from behind her.
"Looks like our little friend has found us again." The older man softly whispered while circling his arms around Christina's small waist; interlocking his hands in front of them.
"Are you serious?"
The reporter from the night before had been following them all around Vegas ever since he'd gotten a glimpse of them leaving the Stratosphere earlier that morning and to say Christina was getting fed up with it would be an understatement.
But if this is what it takes to keep the reporters off of Mya and Curtis's trail then I guess Marshall and I will just have to deal with it.
With that thought in mind, Christina let out a small sigh before reluctantly leaning back into Marshall's embrace; causing the older man to move his head towards her shoulder--gently kissing her neck after a second. "The little fucker brought friends."
Without trying to make it too obvious, Christina looked in the direction of the store's entrance; just in time to see the two men--who were standing beside the reporter--zooming there cameras in to get a better shot of Marshall and her hugging one another. Unbelievable!
"What do you say we go pay for our stuff and then get the hell out of here?"
Thinking that sounded like a good idea right about now caused Christina to take a step foreword; trying to entangle herself from Marshall's arms. But just as she was out of them, Marshall gently grabbed her once again; causing her to look up at him with a confused stare on her face. "What?"
Without even bothering to pretend like he wasn't watching the guys--who were staring at them, outside of the store--Marshall extended his middle finger up to them before slyly replying: "Before we do that, let's give them something else to write home about."
Before Christina could ask what exactly Marshall had in mind, the older man leaned down, touching Christina's lips with his own. And then after a second of thinking about it, he quickly slipped his tongue into her mouth; causing Christina to tense up slightly and the photographers at the door to furiously begin taking pictures.
What the hell does he think he's doing...? And where the hell did he learn how to kiss like that?
Fortunately enough before Christina could ask herself any more questions, Marshall let go of his hold on her and grabbed the T-shirt that she had in her hands; afterwards throwing over his shoulder--as he made his way to the cash register: "Okay...we can go now."
A comment which caused the petite brunette behind him to inwardly ask herself:
What the hell just happened?
Twenty minutes later (The MGM)
"Hey! There you two are...we've been looking around everywhere for you guys."
Turning around at that comment, Christina couldn't help but roll her eyes in annoyance when her line of vision landed on Curtis and Mya--who looked to be, just coming out of the female's room--wearing just got laid expressions on their faces. They could've atleast pretended to look worried while saying that.
Interestingly enough though, before Christina could open her mouth to say that statement outloud, Marshall spoke up with: "Yeah, we went touring the strip...I left you a message on your voicemail, but you guys must've been too busy to listen to it."
With that being said, the older man turned back around, making his way towards his room; Curtis quickly following behind in tow. "Yo, Marsh...wait up!"
After waiting until the two men had disappeared into Marshall's room, Mya turned her attention back to Christina who was slowly making her way down the hallway towards her room. "All right, now that there gone, you can let me have it."
"Have what..?" Christina outwardly asked, while opening the door to her room; holding it for a second, as an afterthought, so Mya could enter behind her.
"You know....it! I know you want to yell at me for inviting you here to see me and then practically shutting you out in the cold while I spent my only free day with Curtis...you're probably angry as hell right now; which you have every right to be......so, do it: yell at me."
While turning around to stare at the older woman in front of her as if she had suddenly grown two heads, Christina contemplated what Mya was asking her to do.
She wants me to tell her off for doing what I knew she was going to do all along..
Any other time, Christina would have probably done just that. But given the circumstances, she chose not to.
"Mya, the whole point of me coming out here to Vegas was to allow you and Curtis to spend some time with one another without the paparazzi hounding you every couple of seconds...so, if I wanted to be angry with anyone for not getting to spend any time with you, I'd have to be angry at myself because I was the one who agreed to come see you; knowing full-well that you'd be spending most of your time with Curtis."
After taking a second to see if Christina was lying or not, Mya asked--just to be on the safe-side--if the other woman was sure that she wasn't angry with her.
"I'm positive." Christina quickly retorted, without a seconds pause. "If anything, I'm just tired right now....Marshall and I spent our entire day trying to get away from this one annoying reporter who just wouldn't leave us alone."
Even though she knew she should feel bad about that because of the fact that the reporter was only harassing them because of her and Curtis, Mya couldn't help but quickly ask: "You two didn't get into any arguments in front of him, did you?"
A question which caused Christina to inwardly reply: Just the opposite, while thinking back to the kiss that Marshall and her had shared not even a half-n-hour ago. "Don't worry...we pretty much got along for the majority of the day. And interestingly enough, no blood or tears were shed."
"I told you he was a changed man." Mya quickly interjected, while letting out a small sigh of relief that her and Curtis's friend had got along okay. "But anyway, now that that's settled, onto a more serious subject...what did you buy me?"
Without even bothering to hide her playful roll of the eyes, Christina laid the three bags that she was holding, out on the couch. And then after a second of digging through one of them, she handed a beige colored baby T-shirt to the other woman. "I saw it at one of the stores we went to and immediately thought of you."
Not really sure if that was a good thing or not caused Mya to hesitantly hold out the T-shirt so she could read what the front of it said. And then after seeing that it said I fucked 50 cent, she didn't know whether to laugh at it or grow angry because of it; a fact which Christina noticed.
"It's so if you and him don't work out and somebody finds out about it and asks why you never told anyone, you can always say: I did...I even have the T-shirt to prove it."
After a second of thinking about this, Mya reluctantly began to laugh at what her friend had just said and then afterwards, she half-jokingly retorted: "Remind me to get you one that says: I fucked Eminem."
"Okay...but only if you remind me afterwards to kick your skinny black ass."
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