That afternoon, after Regina had successfully won her debate, without any angry outbursts from the crowd, a first ever for a discussion about Columbine, Regina wanted to stay and listen to another few things. There was a lecture by a writer she followed, and a communications Professor from Columbia, a specialist in media, was also giving a talk. Marshall marveled at how much Regina enjoyed this stuff. Academia, a world he’d never understand. She told him that if he didn’t want to hang around she didn’t care, but he decided to stay anyway.
Despite how much Regina denied it, it seemed that she was already famous. Numerous people walked up to her, always complementing her on her work and the great debates she gave. Many professors from colleges all over the country were literally trying to get her to attend their colleges to do graduate work.
“There you are! My god, I have been waiting to talk to you, all day!” Regina turned around and found the professor that she’d just sat and listened to, fighting through the crowd to get to her.
“Professor Chalmers?” Regina asked.
“Yes yes yes, my darling, you are hard to get a hold of.” She replied. Marshall stood next to Regina.
“Professor, uh, hi, wow, this is really, an honor. I read your dissertation on the white rapper a few months ago, it was amazing.” Regina said, supremely embarrassed.
“And Miss Contini, I read your article published in the National Journal of Hip Hop and Rap Literature. Nothing short of incredible miss,” the professor rattled on with some more compliments about Regina’s writing until she was nearly an even shade of red.
“Oh, I’m sorry, here I am, yapping on, who’s your friend here?” Professor Chalmers turned to Marshall, thankfully wearing sunglasses and the hood of his sweatshirt up. For a woman to have written anything on the white rapper meant she would know who he was.
“Actually, I’m not gonna be able to take any more classes for a while.” Regina replied.
“Oh that’s a shame, if you don’t mind my asking, how come?” Marshall thought that was beyond unacceptable. What the fuck business of hers was it why Regina wasn’t going to school.
“Well, I just signed a record deal, with Aftermath records,” Regina replied gingerly.
“Really! Oh fantastic! You are just what the industry needs! I can’t wait to hear you do your thing!”
Regina was glad to finally wrestle away from Professor Chalmers when Marshall reminded her of the appointment she had with Professor Amsdale in a few minutes, a complete and bold face lie.
“Thank you so much, I never thought she’d be that annoying!” Regina said once they were back in the car.
“Regina, you’re too friggen nice. Just walk away, people will get the message,” Marshall said as he started the car.
“Well that’s what makes me me, and you you.” Regina replied quietly as she stuffed the rest of her papers in her bag and sat back.
“You realize how famous you are already?” he asked.
“Yeah, I suppose.” Regina replied as she looked out the window.
“What’s the matter?” he asked confused.
“I just have a feeling, that once I’m out there, doing the whole thing, all these people are gonna totally disregard everything I’ve ever done before. You know, I don’t want to be one of these people that goes out and forgets why they got in the business in the first place. I mean, I got a lot of people who are gonna be waiting for me to fuck up and land flat on my face.” Marshall had known Regina’s dedication to music and her writing went deep. But he knew what she was getting at. He knew the feeling. Everyone loved your shit, but they were always waiting for you fall at the same time.
“You’re gonna blow up, and no matter what they say, you’re gonna be great. And what does it matter what any of those people say?” Marshall asked.
“I don’t know. But I’m never gonna let the association fall apart. I ain’t gonna forget the reason I love rap. I’m never gonna let them twist my words, and I’m definitely not going to spend one minute of my time defending my decisions.” Marshall was glad that she was starting to perk up. It was obvious though in the tone of her voice that she did regret the fact that she wouldn’t be able to go to graduate school, and that she had been thinking about this for a while.
“I don’t regret signing,” she said as she turned to him.
“How the hell do you always know what I’m thinking?” he asked.
“It was too obvious not to figure out. But I don’t. I mean think about it, how often in your life do you get the chance to do something you’ve dreamed about since you were seven?” Regina laughed. He smiled at her.
“You still mad at me?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she replied truthfully.
“You think I actually did it with her?” he asked again.
“No, it’s that you lied to me intentionally, just to get me pissed, that’s what pissed me off. Plus, having a conversation with my boyfriend’s ex-wife was not a pleasant experience.” Regina snapped.
“I said I was sorry, what else do you want me to do about it?”
“You just better never do it again. You don’t like lies and dishonesty, so don’t do it to me.” He was quiet for a moment as he drove.
“I am sorry though.” He said again.
“Lets stop fucking talking about it. Shit doesn’t need to be analyzed to death.” She replied. Whoa, another one that she didn’t want to talk about, this was getting really weird. Most women wanted to sit down and “talk” about everything. Regina had the kind of mentality that he admired. It was done, so why talk about everything in circles?
They didn’t speak for the remainder of the trip to the hotel and Marshall was curious as hell at to what was going on in her mind. Once upstairs though, it became perfectly clear what she was thinking about. She was still angry with him and the yelling started and escalated quickly.
Marshall had long since forgotten about the incident, because she had said that she did not want to talk about it anymore. On the ride back he’d been sneaking glances at her, and thinking about some of the things he wanted to do once he got back to the hotel.
While it had only been a week, and he’d had Hailie to keep him distracted, he missed being close to Regina and he missed the sex. It was hard going from getting a little something, at the very least, every other night, a make out session or just a little fondling, to nothing for an entire seven days. He was itching to get her into the bedroom and just fuck out the frustrations from the morning.
He was getting tired of her screaming at him, so he picked her up and threw her down on the bed, crawling in and effectively silencing her with a kiss. Her entire body responded to him, molding itself to his. Taking the hint he took control and ground his hips down into hers, earning a satisfied moan from Regina.
A few hours later, after they’d slept out a rigorous round of sex, they both woke, their stomachs rumbling. Regina sat up, looking down and smiling at Marshall as his eyes fluttered open.
“Nothing like make up sex, eh baby?” she asked patting his stomach.
“You started screaming at me, just for that?” he asked.
“It worked didn’t it?” Regina replied with a raised eyebrow. He laughed slightly and smiled at her.
“Yeah, I suppose it did. You must have been waiting all week for that one.”
“I was. I told you, I like sex, so do you, and when you don’t have it for a week, especially when it’s this good, you miss it,” Regina replied crawling into his lap and resting her hands on his chest.
“Oh I see, so you missed the sex, not me,” he replied with a half-joking tone.
“Oh listen to the baby boy, he thinks I didn’t miss him,” Regina giggled as she leaned down on his chest to get closer to him. She slid her hands up along his shoulders as her lips kissed a line up from his neck and finally to his lips.
“Of course I missed you. That little growl you make when you can’t find the right word to fit in a rhyme, the way you sit and beg me to come to you. Watching you fix your hair in the mirror until it’s just perfect. Or my personal favorite, watching you writing lyrics, and when you get so tired you just fall asleep with your glasses on.” She rested her chin on his chest and drummed her fingers on his shoulders.
“But of course, I only missed the sex.” She replied.
“You like those friggen things on me?” he asked.
“Yes, you look damn sexy with them on.” Regina replied with a grin.
“I look like dork,” he replied with a smirk.
“Then you’re a damn sexy dork, that better?” she asked as she touched his lips again with hers. This time he took her head in his hands and held her in. They were just getting into it again when the bedroom door slammed open.
“Shit Dre! Ever fucking think about knocking?” Marshall snapped as he grabbed the sheet and helped Regina cover herself up.
“Ain’t nothing I’ve never seen before, hey Reggie,” Dre said with a grin.
“You’re hilarious Dre,” she said shaking her head disapprovingly as she held the sheet up over her chest while Marshall pulled himself off of her.
“What the fuck you need to come barging in here for?” Marshall snapped as he found his boxers on the floor beside the bed and pulled them on under the sheet. Regina sat up against the headboard and brushed the hair out of her eyes.
“Video’s been moved up. Now I know you have finals in the morning, so the shoots don't start until one.” Dre said as he looked over at Regina, who shook her head at the thought of having to squeeze three final exams in between video shoots.
“Why is everything getting pushed up so soon?” Marshall asked, visually perturbed.
“Tabloids, they saw you and Regina together. Rumors are flying already. Video is being released as soon as it’s edited. You’re needed in New York this weekend.” Dre replied.
“This weekend?” Regina asked with wide eyes.
“Yup,” Dre nodded.
“Damn, it’s all happening, just never imagined it’d be this fast.” Regina said as she looked straight ahead. Marshall looked back at her and grinned.
“Think it’s gonna be that big a deal?” Marshall asked as he looked back at Dre.
“As long as you guys keep it up in front of the cameras, remember, united front. Same in front of the cameras and off.” Dre replied.
“And Reggie, start writing material, we start recording for your album in two weeks. We want to get a head start on figuring out the best way to market you.” Dre said seriously. She nodded, still starring off in her own thoughts.
“Is that it Dre?” Marshall asked.
“Yeah, first shoot, starts tomorrow at one, be at the studio at twelve.” Dre said before closing the door behind him.
“Oh my god Marshall, I’m actually going to be in a fucking music video and I’m going to start recording my album in two fucking weeks, this just blows my mind.” Regina said laughing as she fell to her side, not bothering with how she fell. Marshall turned to her and smiled.
“Believe it, you deserve it,” he said as she popped up again and sighed, running her fingers through her hair. He turned on the bed to face her and she seized his face in her hands and planted a large kiss on him.
“You know, we never did finish what we started,” she said once she let him go.
“I like where this is going,” he growled slightly, pushing her back on the bed playfully. She giggled at this and reached under the covers to fondle him, causing him to jump.
“Hey!” he laughed.
“Well I didn’t see you taking the boxers off,” she remarked with another laugh.
“You’re just a little nasty thing aren’t you?” he mused as he removed the boxers and climbed under the covers with her.
“Wouldn’t you just like to know?”