The Business Trip

CHAPTER 6 - First Date

The next few days at work flew by and no more erotic sparks came between myself and Marshall, we could only share the occasional passionate kiss. I had a long lie in on Saturday, I felt like I deserved it. However my lie in would not last long as my phone buzzed loudly, I grumbled if this was anyone from work I was gonna... Oh  it was Marshall! It appeared he wanted to take me on a date today. I felt butterflies grow in my stomach, he would be here for me in a couple of hours, or whenever I was ready for him.   

An hour or so later I was almost ready, showered, make up done but no idea what to wear. I had no idea what he had planned for our date. I decided to call him, he picked up within moments. "Hey, is something wrong? What's up?", he said kinda frantically. 

"I just wanted to know what we're doing so I know what to wear,"

"Aight, I can't tell you what we're doing, but wear somethin' quite casual, can you do that?"

I hardly ever wore casual! "Okay! Thanks Marshall, I'll call you when I'm ready," 

"You'll look amazing, I'll see ya later," And with that he hung up, now to have fun with the 'casual' style.  

I eventually decided on clothes that were casual yet formal at the same time, a floaty white tee with subtle decoration and my best pair of jeans. It felt so weird, being dressed down, it wasn't me! I sent Marshall a text and then waited. I didn't have to wait long as I saw the familiar Mercedes pulling into the parking lot. I dashed out the hotel, my main concern was that the hotel staff may get suspicious if Mr Mathers strolled into the hotel, so I'd strictly told him he had to wait in the car. I greeted him by planting a kiss on his cheek, he squeezed my hand and we drove off. Nothing was said for a few minutes, I had nothing to say, it felt awkward. But he seemed more than happy, totally oblivious, either that or he could hide his feelings well. "Where are we going?", I piped up. "I don't wanna give too much away, but we're heading outta Detroit," he responded calmly totally focused on the road ahead.  

I looked out of the window, and then began to think of what had already happened between myself and Marshall. We'd had sex. It was quite a big thing for me. My mind drifted to the night before that "I don't wanna rush things" he'd said. But what had happened less than 24 hours later? It confused me. I didn't quite understand. I would have to ask him at some point.   Rather strangely at that moment Marshall glanced over at me and I tried to pull my features together in the hope he wouldn't question me.

"Come on, what's up?"

I began to stumble over my words, i didn't want to offend him!  I eventually got the words out, "I'm just a little confused about what's happening,"

"Okay, what's confusing you?"

"It's just that, you said we'd take it slowly and then we had sex and we hardly know each other," I said cautiously. He pulled the car into the side of the road, he then turned to face me, his smooth palm cupped my face. "I don't know how to put it, I, I have a few issues that I seem to always be burdened with. I have a bit of a trust issue and that night at the hotel, it felt good but I didn't feel ready enough to go further at that moment. I just....", he stumbled. 

"I understand, I just didnt want to upset you or anything," 

"It's fine Miss Greystone", he responded with a quick wink. I smiled to myself, I felt less awkward now, knowing kinda what had gone on.   

Around five minutes later I heard Marshall mutter some cuss words under his breath. "Missed the goddamn turn in! This place isn't far from the hotel, i just took a longer route round,"

"It's fine! I enjoyed it, I like being in the car, so where are we?" He parked up the car, we were near some sort of river. He pulled me close the him, it appeared we were in a pretty isolated place.

"We're not that far out of Detroit, I just wanted to show you this place cos, well I find it claiming and it's easy on the eyes," he said, "you see that island? That's Belle Isle Conservancy, I really wanted to take you on to it, but there's so many people about and I just don't wanna risk anything. But here is just as nice I think personally!"

From where we stood you could just see small, bright fuzzy trees on the island. The Sun was beginning to dip low in the sky. "I'll take you on to the island someday, it's so nice, it's a shame the girls are growing out of it a little"  

"So, tell me about yourself," he said.

"Well you know my name, I spent most of my life in New York, I wish I could have a cat but my apartment doesn't permit animals, I'm a very tidy person, I like to be in charge of things or else i go a little mad. I'm up here in Detroit hoping to get a promotion, what about you?"

"Well, I imagine you'll already know a lot of things about me. I have trust issues, I'm actually surprisingly obsessive with certain things like when I'm on tour I have to have certain items in my room. I eat a lot of fruit, drink a lot of coke and red bull, sugar free though. Oh and I cannot work computers, I don't understand them." I laughed, the thought of the rapper trying to turn one on or even work twitter was enough to make me giggle.

"What? What're you laughing at?"

"Oh nothing! Well, I'm imagining you tryin to work a computer now," I said smiling at him. He sighed, "I honestly don't think I'd want to, I'd just become addicted to it, you'd get me posting all sorts of crazy shit!".  

I had no idea how long we were stood there, just standing side by side, gazing out into the horizon,  with ice cold water lapping at the shoreline below our feet, birds singing, overall I felt very relaxed. Marshall took my hand and we walked back to his Mercedes, I actually forget how comfy these seats are. He drove off smoothly, the sky was beginning to grow dark, it must have been around 7.30 pm! We must have stood and chatted for around 2 hours and Marshall's "longer route round" must have been very long. He didn't seem to want to rush back however and drove at a fairly slow speed. I don't think our first date could have been any better.