The next morning Marshall leaned over and looked at the clock on the bedside table. It was already past noon but he couldn’t get his body to even move. His head was splitting, he was ready to vomit and the sunlight pouring in the room assaulted his eyes. He groaned as he made himself sit up and throw his legs over the bed. He realized he still had his clothes on from the night before, shoes and hat and all. He pulled the hat off his head and ran his fingers through the little bit of hair he had and tried to remember what had happened that night.

They’d gone to a club, some club, he didn’t know which one. He’d had a few drinks and then he’d danced with someone. It hadn’t been with Regina, that was for sure, he would have remembered that. Then he remembered drinking some more, but after that it was hazy. He put his head in his hands and rubbed his face vigorously.

“Shit,” he mumbled as he looked up and heard the phone ring.

“Hello?”

“Hey asshole, it’s about time you get up, you’re supposed to be finishing the album, today. It goes into production, in three days.” Dre said angrily.

“What? Huh, oh yeah, okay yeah, I’ll be there in a while,” Marshall replied.

“Oh and by the way, Regina was looking for you. You said you’d take her to her class this morning, and then you didn’t show up. I got Proof to take her since you couldn’t be bothered to get your ass in gear,” Dre continued, still angry with Marshall beyond the shadow of a doubt.

“What the fuck man, Jesus Christ, I’ll be there in a little while. And how the fuck was I supposed to know to take her anywhere?” Marshall replied annoyed.

“Yesterday, you told her, while we were all in the studio that you would take her to class. She didn’t ask you to do it, you offered. Besides, you’ve been taking her to class for the last four weeks anyway.”

“All right, fine, I’ll be there in a few minutes,” Marshall replied, the previous day’s conversations flooding back to him. He had told Regina that he would take her to class, for the same reason he’d been taking her to class the last four weeks, because he wanted to. Great, now he’d have to face Regina and the guys. At least he hadn’t slept with that girl, what was her name again?

After hanging up on Dre he went to the bathroom and swallowed three Tylenol and spotted a napkin on the counter. He picked it up and read, “555-0164, Call me, Tina.” He groaned as he crumpled the napkin and threw it away. He could not believe he’d done that. He’d danced with that other woman, thank god he hadn’t gone to bed with her. After his head had cleared up a little he started to remember what had happened.

After dancing with Tina for a little while he’d felt so guilty that he’d gone to the bar and gotten a little carried away. He vaguely remembered Proof and Bizarre dragging him into his room and leaving him to either die or wake up with an enormous hangover.

He pressed his fingers into his eyes and tried to will the hangover away. He didn’t want to look at Regina, he didn’t want to face her. She would know. Women always knew. He had been so stupid.

Not knowing what to do he showered and dressed. He spent a few minutes pacing the bedroom before deciding what he could say to Regina. Settling on the truth, he bolstered up all his courage and left for the studio.

By the time he arrived however, the courage had left the building. He was freaking out on the spot. He didn’t want to see her, at all, but at the same time he was dying to be with her and confess everything. He wanted to tell her that he had been so wrong to do that to her and that he’d never wanted to do that to her.

What the hell was wrong with him? Here he was freaking out about dancing with a girl when he and Regina were not even considering themselves an item. Besides, he had just danced with her, that wasn’t considering cheating. Although, he, had broken up with girls doing the same thing to him. He was a hypocrite he decided and hauled out of the car.

Upon entering the studio, Bizarre and Proof gave him reproachful glances. His eyes then automatically swept the room looking for Regina. When he spotted her she was getting up to see him. She had a smile on her face as she stood on tip toe to kiss him.

“Hey boy, where were you this morning, I missed ya,” she said good-naturedly.

“I was busy,” he replied stiffly.

“Busy doing what?” she laughed.

“Look, I said I was busy. What the fuck I got to take you to class for everyday?” he snapped. Nervousness turned to him acting like an asshole. He knew this mechanism all too well. She’d be mad enough at him in a while, might as well be the jerk and deserve it.

The smile on her face faded instantly.

“Jesus Christ, I was just making a joke. God it’s not a big fucking deal. Besides, it’s not like I asked you to take me,” she replied sharply as she went back to her spot on the couch. His shoulders slumped as the feeling of stupidity washed over him. She’d only been joking.

“Look Reggie,” he started as he walked towards the couch.

“It takes me twenty minutes to walk to campus, I don’t mind, but you offered to take me. If you didn’t want to take me, fine, you should have just fucking called, but I wasn’t making a big deal out of it or anything. But if you are going to be an ass, then fuck it.” Regina replied, refusing to look at him.

“I didn’t mean, I wasn’t trying to,” he tried to find something to say but nothing would have been right.

“If you’re feeling guilty about something, don’t. Proof called me while you guys were at the club, and as I told him, I’ll tell you. You can do whatever you want, we are not exclusive. But if you’re gonna use it as an excuse to treat me like a piece of crap you got another thing coming,” Regina replied, this time looking directly at him. Proof and Bizarre sat with grins on their faces.

“I just danced with this girl,” Marshall started, but again she cut in.

“I said, I don’t care. Marshall, we are not like girlfriend-boyfriend or something. Do what you want.”

“Regina, come on, don’t be like that,” Marshall replied.

“No, you don’t be like that. Keep your business to yourself and don’t come dragging it back to me,” Regina snapped as she got up off the couch. She opened the door to the hall and stepped out, disappearing from sight.

“Nice one Em,” Fifty said with a little bit of clapping.

“Fuck off,” Marshall snapped as he flopped down on the spot where Regina had been sitting.

“Thanks guys, for calling her up,” Marshall said after a moment as he looked over at Proof and Bizarre.

“The girl is our friend, we was just giving her a heads up, it was only fair,” Proof replied putting his hands up.

“Fair my ass, what the fuck do you give about being fair?” Marshall shot back at him.

“Yo ladies, enough with the chick chat going on.” Dre boomed as he entered the room.

“What’s up Dre?” Marshall asked quickly.

“Well if you would have gotten your ass down here earlier to finish the fucking album we might have made the seven o’clock deadline for tonight, which they are gonna put my ass in a sling for if we don’t have it down. And two, Making the Video is gonna be there at the video shoot. You and Regina need to figure out what this is going on between you so that you are ready for the public.” As he spoke Regina returned.

“What do we need to do?” she asked.

“You and Marshall, you need to have a talk, figure it out, beat the shit out each other, I don’t care. We need a united front on the video next week. If you his girl, you gon’ say so. It gon’ be that way in private and in public. Otherwise we gon’ have another Mariah fiasco.” Dre replied.

“Okay,” Regina nodded as she took an unexpected seat beside Marshall. He looked over at her surprised.

“I thought you were mad at me?” he asked.

“You are an asshole, yeah, but that don’t change nothing. I left because I needed to get a drink.” Regina replied. Proof and Bizarre gave each other confused stares.

“Oooookaaaaay,” Dre said with a raised eyebrow.

“Don’t worry Dre, we’ll figure it out.”