As was planned, Marshall and Lataya were going to go out for dinner, and Marshall had called her to make plans for it later that week. He was still kicked out of the house, so he stayed in the hotel. Kim didnt know anything about him talking to Lataya again, he was sure that if she did, she would be very mad. He wasnt going to tell her that he was going out to dinner with her either.

He pulled his convertable up out front of a small house that was dark, besides a light on out front and one that looked to be in the kitchen. He turned the music down on 'Where the party at' with Jagged Edge featuring Nelly, and opened the drivers side door. He left the car on, figuring he would only be a second, and jogged up to the front door of the house.

He looked up at the small house, it was blue with white windows and shutters. It looked nice, and small and cozy. The kind of house he had always liked. He never had enough money for one of these, and when he did, he made the mistake of sending Kim to buy a house and decorate it. He knocked on the door and heard a dog barking.

"Shh." Lataya said, opening the door. The dog kept barking. She smiled at Marshall and moved the dog away from the door with her leg. "Get out of here Molly!" She said, shooing the dog away. She stepped out of the house, shutting the light off and locking the door behind her. "Hey. Sorry, Matts dog. Barks at EVERYTHING!" She laughed.

"Its aight. You ready to go?" He asked.

"Yeah!" She said, grinning excitedly at him and throwing her purse over her shoulder as they walked down the steps and across the lawn to Marshalls car. When she saw the car her jaw dropped. It was a silver car, with no top on it, and it looked to seat about 4 of 5 people. It was shiny and new looking. "Marshall, THIS is your car?!" She asked, running a hand over the front of it on her way around to the passenger side.

"Yeah." He said, opening the drivers side door.

"Whoa, this is NICE!" She exclaimed, opening her passenger side door and sitting down. "Oh my god Marshall, leather seats?!"

"Yeah." He laughed. "The price to pay when you have money. Ill suffer through it though."

"Im sure you will," She laughed and gasped as her eyes caught site of a phone inbetween the drivers and passenger side seats. "MARSHALL YOU HAVE A PHONE IN YOUR CAR!"

"Yeah, it was either that or a rear spoiler." He shrugged. "This is a nice car though. Look, its got like, air conditioning, CD player, air bags on drivers and passenger side, you dont need a key to unlock it either. Powerless windows, powerless mirrors, power driver and passenger seat, tilt steering, lots of shit I never thought would be in a car I had. I always had those crappy little cars that sat like 2 people and broke down every 5 minutes." He laughed.

"Oh my fucking god this is a nice car Marshall." She said in awe. "What make is it?"

"Ohh, a 2002 Lexus Convertable." He said. Lataya stared at Marshall.

"Shit, this is a nice car." She said, sighing.

"Say it again? I didnt hear you the first 5 times." He teased, pulling the car out into the street and driving out. "Where do you wanna go? Somewhere nice?"

"Naw, I dont care. What do you want to eat?" She asked.

"I dont know. Im one for Taco Bell myself, so dont let me pick where we go," He laughed.

"Okay, well, I really dont care what we get." She shrugged.

"Well, Chinese?" He asked, glancing at her and stopping at a red light.

"Naw..." She trailed off.

"See? You do care. I would say Italian food but theres no fucking restaurants for like, 6 hours! You think Detriot would have a restaurant?!" He laughed.

"Oh jeez, well, what about Outback Steakhouse?" She asked, expecting him to turn it down.

"Yeah! Thats a good Idea!" He excalimed. "Theres one in Madison Heights. Thats not to far from here." He said, pulling out into a highway. "Bout a 20 minute drive if we make good time."

"Seriously?" She laughed.

"Yeah, why not?" He asked. "You want it right?"

"Well, yeah but I didnt think you would." She shrugged.

"Well, I do." He said, fixing his gaze on the road and turning up the radio as Jigga by Jay Z came on. He looked over at Lataya. "You like Jay Z?"

"Yeah, hes cool." She nodded.

"You dont really do you?" He asked laughing.

"I do! I like a few of his songs, what Ive heard." She shrugged.

"You like this song?"

"Yeah, its okay. I like the other one though. What was it? 'I just wanna love you' or something. I love that song." She grinned.

"Yeah?" He grinned back at her.

They talked mostly about the radio, musical acts that they both like, that Marshall liked and Lataya didnt, vice versa, or that they both hated. After a long drive that seemed shorter than it really was, Marshall backed his car into a parkingspace in the restaurant and pulled a hat out from the backseat, and pulled it over his head.

"Shes got more plastic than a fucking barbie doll!" Lataya laughed, talking about Britney Spears. "God, If I hear oops I did it again, one more time!"

"Oops, I did it again-" He started singing it, and she slapped a hand over his mouth.

"Spare me, please?" She begged.

"Fine." He laughed, although it was muffled because her hand was still over his lips. She removed her hand and he laughed at her. "Lets go inside girl. C'mon." He said, getting out of the car and clicking the button on his keys to lock the car and put an alarm on it, only after Lataya had stepped away from the car.

"You bothered locking the car? Its a convertable!" She laughed.

"Thats what the alarm is for dumbass." He said, putting his arm around her shoulders as they walked towards the restuarant in the dark parkinglot.

They got into the restaurant, and got a table in a quiet section, set away from all the chaos of the bar and such, and sat down to look over the menu. They ordered a Beringer wine. Marshall got a steak with the house salad on the side, and Lataya got a well done pot roast with garlic mashed potatoes.

"So, how are things with you and Matt?" Marshall asked.

"Fine, fine." She said, cutting a peice of her pot roast.

"Hes treating you good then?" He asked doubtfully.

She laughed. "Of course." She lied. Matt didnt treat her well all the time, but most of the time he did, so it didnt matter right?

"Thats good, Im glad. I would have to kick his ass if he wasnt." Marshall cleared his throat and took a bite of his salad.

"Right, why cant I picture that?" She asked sarcastically.

"Hey, I could. I bet I could take him easily." He said thoughtfully.

"Oh god."

"Dont you think?" He asked.

"No comment." She said, looking down at her plate.

"Well I could." Marshall sulked. She giggled.

"Well what about you and Kim?" She asked, mostly to be polite.

"Ahh...as good as things can be when being married to Kim." He sighed.

She shook her head. "Im not going to say anything."

"No, go ahead." He said, raising both eyebrows.

"No, I wont do it." She laughed. "Hows Hailie?"

He grinned. "Shes doing good, really good." He nodded.

"Thats good." She coughed. "Hows Dr Dre?"

Marshall started laughing and set his fork down.

"What?!" She asked defensively, blushing.

"You still have a thing for him!" He laughed at her.

"Shut up, hes very, hot." She said quietly, blushing bright red.

"Oh my god, stop it, your gonna kill me!" Marshall laughed harder.

"Shut UP!" She whispered furiously. "People are starting to stare!"

"I dont care!" He exclaimed, laughing and shaking his head. "They can KISS MY-" He was cut off by Latayas hand covering his mouth again.

"Marshall..." She held back laughter. She started laughing a little, but quickly disguised it with a cough.

He was staring at her. She was so pretty when she laughed, he couldnt believe it. She moved her hand away from him slowly. "Yes?" He asked innocently.

"Nevermind." She giggled and looked down at her mashed potatoes, taking a forkful and putting it in her mouth.

He watched her eat, so neatly and nice. She had nice manners, he decided. She really was pretty, and she was just so, herself. She was so different from Kim. Kim would order the most expensive thing on the menu, and then complain about it all through dinner, pick out everything that was wrong with it. And if nothing was wrong with the food, she would talk shit about the restaurant, how the waiter looked, or how the waitress dressed like a whore. Lataya seemed to like what she was eating, and it wasnt that expensive, it cost less than his did. She also seemed to enjoy the restaurant and the atmosphere. She was so, awesome. He never realized it, he had taken her for granted all those years ago, thats why they werent together today.

They ate the rest of the night, talking over little things, things that werent really important but were vital to their conversation, and had more importance than either realized or ever will realize. When they left that night, they both had alot of fun, and were still not ready to leave each other yet.

"You wanna go home or go somewhere else?" Marshall asked as they got in the car.

"I dont know, where else can we go?" She asked, leaning back against the comfortable leather seats.

"We can just drive around and talk for a while I guess." Marshall said, shrugging. "You dont like clubs and shit right? You dont like bars either than? And, Movies, ah, I dunno, I wanna talk to you." He explained. "I dont know really where else we could go."

"Hm, I guess driving around would be nice. As I said before, I really like your car Marshall."

"Yeah, Im starting to get jealous." He joked. She laughed.

They drove around a while, talking and laughing over things. Finally it was almost 1 AM, niether had expected they would be out this late. Marshall pulled his car up in front of her house and turned it off. He looked over at her, she was looking out the window.

"You know, I had a good time tonight." He said, starting conversation. She looked over at him.

"Me too. Thanks." She smiled.

"We should go out again sometime, this time bring Matt." He said, glancing at her house.

"Yeah, we should. Its been fun though. Thanks for taking me out tonight." She grinned. "I missed talking to you like this, it was great seeing you again."

"Yeah, same." He nodded. They sat in silence for a few seconds, and Marshall didnt even know what he was thinking before he leaned over and kissed her. Once their lips touched, he realized what he had just did and he wanted to pull away, and apologize and drive away, he felt so stupid. What was he thinking? After a second, he realized that she didnt pull away from him either.

She closed her eyes and kissed him back, it was unexpected, but great. There was a familiarity in his kiss that she loved. His lips felt right on hers, as they always had. She used to love to kiss Marshall. A second later her eyes shot open as she remembered Matt, her fiancee. What the fuck was she doing kissing Marshall? Quickly, she felt a pang of guilt and pulled away from him. Immediatly he leaned away from her, and cleared his throat nervously.

"Im sorry, Im, really sorry," He shook his head and he could feel his face blushing a bright red.

"No, its alright, I just, um, I just," She stuttered. What should she say? She didnt want to say anything, she wanted to lean back over and kiss him again, but god, Matts face kept swimming around in her head. She hesitated. What should she do?

"No, its my fault, I shouldnt have done that..." He laughed nervously and cleared his throat again.

"Dont worry about it Marshall." She said softly, leaning over and kissing his cheek gently. "I have to go. Um, maybe we can go out again, and talk or something?"

"Sure." He said, staring at her as if in awe.

"Okay then. I guess Ill see you, later?" She said, opening the car door. He licked his lips and nodded. He decided not to walk her to the door, but to watch her until she got inside, just incase. He thought it would be innappropriate if he walked her up to the door, and awkward.

She shut the car door and walked around the front of it, jogging up the lawn to the front door and taking her key out of her purse. She was glad he hadnt walked her to the door, she really felt guilty about kissing him like that. She should have pulled away or something, she was engaged after all, but for some reason she didnt. She didnt know why. She just, couldnt for some reason, all thought of Matt was forgotten, and there was just Marshall and her for that minute. That one precious minute it was only them, no one else. No Kim, no Matt, no one to come inbetween them.

She shook her head and turned the key in the lock. Molly, Matts dog, was going crazy barking inside the house. Marshall was still sitting in the car, making sure that she could get into the house. She didnt really wanna leave him just yet, she grinned, a sneaky idea forming in her mind. She took the house key and pulled it off the key ring, tossing it into her purse and tried Matts car key in the lock.

As she had thought, it didnt work. She swore loudly, loud enough for Marshall to hear and looked back at the car. Marshall raised both eyebrows and rolled the window down, letting some of the air conditioning out, but he didnt care.

"Whats the matter?" He yelled across the lawn.

"I forgot to bring my house key!" She yelled. "The keys dont fit!"

He turned the car off and got out, walking up to the steps to try and help her get into the house. He fiddeled with the keys for a few minutes, and then after realizeing that none of the keys would work, he looked up at her. "Whens Matt getting home?"

"Sometime tommorow afternoon."

"Will he have a key?" He asked.

"Yeah." She nodded.

"Oh, well uhm, what do you wanna do?"

"I dont know. I supposed I could get a room at the hotel your staying at...?" She shrugged.

"Its expensive, but hey, I have a suite, so why dont you come share my room? I can take the couch, you can have the bed. If your ok with it, that is." He offered.

"Sure." She grinned at him. Just what she wanted to hear him say. "Thanks again Marshall." She said as they walked back down to the car.

"No problem. Im glad I waited for you to get in the house." He laughed, having no clue that she set this up.

"Me too." She said as they got back into the car. They drove down to the hotel, the awkward moment when they kissed was forgotten, almost as if it hadnt happened, although they both knew better.

They got to the hotel and walked through the lobby. Lataya looked around, she had never been in a hotel this nice before. Her and Matt didnt exactly have alot of money. He worked, but he didnt make that much money, just enough to pay the bills. Lataya worked, and she bought food for them, and anything else they needed, and also used the rest to put herself through school so she could get a better job. She never went anywhere nice, she wasnt used to money.

"Its nice here." She commented as they waited for the elevator to come.

"Yeah, it is." He nodded. "Kim got me the room." He cleared his throat.

"Oh...She did?" She said, looking at the floor as the elevator opened. She didnt want to hear about Kim right now. She didnt want to think about Matt either.

They got into the elevator and Marshall pressed the fourth floor. They were silent in the elevator, mostly because there was someone else already in there. When they got out, they walked quietly down the hall to Marshalls room.

"Yeah, um, she did." He answered, though a little late. He took the key out of his jacket pocket and turned the lock. As they walked in he heard the phone ringing and rushed forward, leaving her in the doorway, and grabbed the phone. He remembered what Kim said about not being out fucking someone, and he picked up the phone quickly. "Hello?" He said, trying to hide the breathless sound in his voice.

"Marshall? Where the fuck have you been?!" Kims voice said, yelling.

"I was in the shower." He lied, defensively.

"Yeah, right, for 5 hours?!" She asked angrily.

"Okay, so I went out for dinner." He said. "By myself." He added, glancing at Lataya and waving at her to come inside. She did, and quietly shut the door, guessing who it was on the phone with him.

"Yeah right. You got a girl there dont you?" She asked. He knew that she was just trying to scare him a little, so he sighed.

"No Kim, I dont got no girl here."

"You dont?"

"Nope." He said, watching Lataya sit down on the couch, and look around at the nice room. It had a bedroom and a livingroom type area. There was a couch and an armchair, a fireplace and some end tables. On the end tables were vases with flowers in them, and a minifridge in the corner. The big glass double doors to the bedroom were behind the couch, one door open all the way, the other halfway. The bed was unmade, and Marshalls suitcase was on the dresser against a wall opposite the bed.

"Then, you wanna come home?" Kim asked seductively. He knew she was only bluffing, so he grinned.

"Sure!" He said eagerly.

"Oh my god. You really dont have a girl there huh? Well, keep your sorry ass out of this house Marshall!" She yelled, slamming the phone down. He hung up and laughed, looking over at Lataya.

"The wife?" Lataya asked, though she knew the answer.

"Yup." Marshall laughed and sat down on the couch next to her. "I'll sleep here tonight, ok? And you can sleep in the bed, and tommorow we can go out for breakfast and then I gotta go down to the studio..." He trailed off. "Shit. You can come if you want, but its boring there. Hailie always ends up sleeping on the couch."

"That would be awesome!" She grinned. "Ive never been to a real studio before."

"Well, I dont know how exciting its gonna be. But alright." He shrugged.

Lataya smiled to herself, she knew what she wanted to happen tonight, but she didnt know how to get around to it. "Hey Marshall?" She asked, not knowing what she was going to say after, but figuring something would come to her in the moment.

"Yeah?" He asked, kicking his shoes off.

"I really missed you all these years."

"I missed you too." He said, looking over at her. She couldnt help but smile, and then blushed, looking down at her lap.

"I thought alot, while I was in the hospital. Yanno? There wasnt much else I could do but think. And like, I just, Im sorry for you know, everything that happened." She moved closer to him, so that they were sitting just inches apart.

"Dont worry about it." He said, looking down.

"Well, see, I remembered how it was when we went out. Like how you treated me and stuff? And like, I just, I dont know, Matt doesnt treat me like you did." She looked down, for the first time admitting this to herself and Marshall. But she felt it was something important that she needed to say to him.

"No?" Marshall asked, as if indicating that he wanted to know how he treated her.

"Yeah, see you treated me good, and he, doesnt. I dont think hes visiting his mother in New York City." She sighed and leaned her head against his shoulder.

"Whys that?" Marshall asked, feeling tired, but not wanting to go to sleep yet. He liked being with Lataya, and talking to her. She was easy to talk to, he liked that. He felt like he could tell her anything, she was just that kind of person. She was so different than Kim. Kim, well if you told her something, she would get on the phone and tell all her friends in a matter of minutes. He didnt trust her with alot of stuff.

"Because his mother lives in New Jersey." She said, looking over at him. He looked at her and sighed, putting an arm around her shoulders comfortingly.

"Im sorry. He sounds like an asshole, and if hes playing you, then, you deserve better. If that prick hurts you, you come to me. Like I said, Ill get him for ya." He laughed.

"Oh yeah right!" She grinned at him. "You would not. Plus, I heard that you was on probation for some shit a while back, involving Kim and a guy at a nightclub? You cant beat the shit out of anyone when your on probation. But the thought is sweet. And I thank you." She said, leaning over and kissing his lips softly.

"Welcome." He said, after she had pulled away from him. He was very confused. Just a little while ago, he kissed her and she had pulled away and things were weird, but now she kissed him? She was smiling at him too. He missed that smile. She had the most beautiful smile that he had ever seen.

"So..." Lataya said, starting to feel a little uncomfortable with him staring at her like that. She looked away and tried not to think of it, but it was bothering her. She hated it when people stared at her. She turned back around to face him. "Wha-" She was cut off by his mouth covering hers, and she was pleasantly surprised. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back.