The next morning Regina convinced Marshall to go and visit his daughter for a week. He already had the okay from Dre, the album was done, off to processing, and the video wasn’t until next week. He tried to convince Regina to go with him, but she refused on the grounds of class and the upcoming debate.
Though he was ecstatic about getting to see Hailie, and for an entire week, he felt odd about leaving Regina. The feeling of jealously crept into his stomach, and for a while he worried, that while the cat was away, the mouse would play. Although he was pretty sure she would be offended by being called a mouse. He knew Regina wouldn’t cheat on him, but he didn’t know know,
He thought that she might have been a little worried about him going to see his ex-wife everyday for the next week while he saw Hailie, the ex-wife he mentioned in almost every song as a woman he hated, but also still loved. Though those songs were made when he was merely expressing his feelings, at a single moment in time, the idea was plain enough. But Regina never mentioned it. There were two options, either she had thought about it and wasn’t saying anything, or she really was not concerned. He couldn’t decide which would be the most likely assumption so he gave up arguing with himself.
After making a quick plane reservation he said a hurried goodbye and took off for the airport, telling Regina he’d call her that night.
The next week passed in a flurry for Regina. She studied for finals and researched for her debate. Dre told her not to worry about coming to the studio, and just to work on her debate, though she thought this was more because of the fight at her family’s house than anything. He made the excuse that she’d already recorded enough stuff to work with for a little while, and he was confident they’d get something out of it.
With less than a week to prepare it was a full scale red alert for the Rap and Hip-Hop Association. Regina was reading book after book, non stop, taking notes, reading notes, rifling through articles, magazines, newspapers, websites, anything that would get her through this debate. Association members were doing their part by reading articles, summarizing them and taking notes before passing them onto Regina, and researching libraries and newspaper mortuaries.
Two days after Marshall returned she’d be up at the podium again, and she wanted him right there in the front row. She was glad for the time away from him so that she could get together with the association and work on the debate. Although, she did miss him, sleeping alone was extremely lonely now. She awaited his nightly phone calls like a drug addiction, and didn’t sleep peacefully until she’d heard his voice whisper “night baby.”
Marshall was enjoying his time with Hailie so much that sometimes he wished he didn’t have to go back to recording and the videos and the hustle of the music business. Everyday Hailie had school he would drop her off in the morning and in the afternoon he was waiting on the front steps as the bell rang. He’d help her with her homework, make her dinner and spend the rest of the evening doing whatever Hailie wanted.
Consequently Marshall spent many hours with coloring books, Barbie dolls, Power Puff Girl videos and My Little Ponies, and laughed as he thought, “Boy, if some of my fans could see me now.” But he didn’t care. Every minute he sat there with Hailie and every hour playing Candy Land or Pretty, Pretty Princess, was special, important to him.
When Hailie saw him on that first day, standing outside her school, she ran at him full tilt and jumped on him. He couldn’t get over how much she had grown. He immediately hated himself for not getting to see her often. After he’d explained that he was staying for the entire week, Hailie was so excited that she twirled around and started singing, and didn’t stop until they arrived home. Since he had arrived he’d been taking pictures of Hailie non-stop. He wanted nothing more than to capture every single smile, every little bit of change that occurred in her. He missed being around her.
On Hailie’s day off, Marshall took the film to a one-hour drop and took Hailie out for ice cream. As usual Hailie had wanted the most lethal, disgusting flavor on the menu, some kind of hot pink cotton candy variety and had already slopped half of it all down her front. Marshall just sat there watching her, smiling and laughing slightly.
“Daddy, who’s that lady you talk to on the phone all the time?” she asked as she took a lick of the melting ice cream. This took him by surprise, not remembering ever speaking to Regina in front of her.
“Then how do you know if I’m talking to anyone, if you’re supposed to be in bed?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. Hailie giggled.
“Cause,” she said with a laugh, “I can’t sleep when I hear someone talking, and you always talk soooooo loud daddy,” Hailie replied with a grin. He smiled at that, she did have a point, he did speak loud, except when he said goodnight to Regina. He always whispered that part, trying to make it seem like he was right there with her.
When Marshall didn’t answer her right away she asked again.
“Who is she?”
“Oh, she’s a friend,” he replied, taking a spoon of his standard chocolate ice cream, no whipped cream and especially no cherry.
“What kind daddy?” Hailie asked as she gave him a look he knew he was famous for. “A girlfriend?” She asked again.
“She’s a girl, and she’s a friend, so she is a girl-friend, yes,” Marshall replied lamely.
“No daddy, she’s your girlfriend. Mommy said you had a new one,” Hailie replied, Marshall nearly choked on his ice cream.
“How does mommy know?” Marshall asked carefully as he coughed again.
“She found out in the papers, there was a picture of you with a pretty girl, she had black hair. You were kissing her,” Hailie replied. Marshall frowned. The tabloids, great, already. He couldn’t wait to hear Dre screaming about it, and not to mention how worried he already was about Regina’s reaction to all of it. He also now had to have a talk with Kim about letting Hailie know what was in the tabloids.
“Is she nice daddy?” Hailie asked, breaking him from his thoughts.
“Eat your ice cream sweetie,” he replied, trying to ignore the question completely.
“You must like her a lot to talk to her every night. You say a lot of nice things to her, you tell her how pretty she is, and you miss her a lot. What’s her name?” Hailie asked again. Marshall looked over at his little girl and knew he wasn’t going to be able to lie out of this one. She was more like him than Kim, a fact that he was proud of, but at times he found annoying, like this one.
“Her name is Regina,” he replied taking another spoon of his ice cream.
“Is she nice to you daddy? Cause mommy said that she hoped she was treating you nice,” Hailie replied. Marshall nearly choked this time and had to get a drink of water before he could speak again.
“Mommy said that?” Marshall asked once he got himself under control again.
“Yeah. She’s been real worried about you. She talks about you all the time, I guess cause that’s because you’re not here that much, but she said that she hoped you could find somebody who deserved you, like she found Erik.” Hailie replied.
Marshall snorted at the mention of Erik. As much as he and Kim had been on semi-good terms, for at least the last few months, he still didn’t like the new husband. The biggest part of that came from the fact that Erik liked to introduce Hailie like she was his daughter, and wanted Hailie to call him dad. Marshall had quickly put an end to that, and had always disliked the man since. The fact that Kim had remarried didn’t bother him anymore, as far as he was concerned, Erik, or any other man that wanted her could have her, he just couldn’t have Hailie. She was the only good thing he’d gotten out of the relationship with Kim and he was not about to let someone else claim her as his daughter.
“Why is she worried about me?” he asked after a minute. He took a spoon of ice cream from the bowl in front of him and then thought better of it and pushed the bowl and spoon away from him.
“Cause, I told her the last time you saw me, you seemed sad, and you were angry at the Mariah lady.” Hailie replied as took a napkin from the table and began to wipe up some of the ice cream that had melted on her shirt.
“You told her I was sad?” Marshall asked, surprised by how grown up his daughter now seemed to him.
“Well, yeah dad. I mean, mom is happy, and I just don’t think it’s fair. You don’t get to see me a lot cause mommy won’t move, and you’re sad all the time. You should be happy too,” Hailie said as she stared at her father.
Marshall was touched at the concern from his daughter. A wave of amazement passed over him as he realized his daughter was now nine, not a little four year old running around and just calling him “da da”, telling him about her dolls. Soon enough he’d be fending off the boyfriends, and he was not looking forward to that.
“You talk to boys at school?” he asked, suddenly worried that Hailie was going to turn sixteen over night. She made a face at him.
“Ew! Dad! Boys have cooties! And don’t change the subject, we were talking about Regina, daddy. Do you like her, is she nice to you?”
“Lets just say she doesn’t have cooties,” Marshall replied, looking at his daughter and smiling.