Flourless Chocolate Cake
1. Five Tenets
Marshall was no doubt a picky man when it came to women. He had been with a respectable amount of them, enough to sample a range of ethnicities and careers, enough to know what kind of traits he preferred in a girl, and enough to successfully formalize his dating life. The description of the women he had dated in the past year went like this: Cecilia, a perfectly lovely blue-eyed redhead and an associate attorney who spoke of nothing but her job (except when she inadvertently insulted Marshall's favorite musician by calling him a "folk movement sob story turned washed-up rock star"), Lorraine, the epitome of a svelte, culturally-knowledgeable Mediterranean woman who worked as a fine dining waitress (and drove him insane by constantly primping and obsessing over her appearance), Dana, his gorgeous former professor with an intelligence to rival his (despite the fact that because of her he sadly learned that it was actually possible to find a woman to be TOO sexually forward), Katherine, a first-year intern at Presbyterian Hospital, a bit young, but who was unassumingly pretty with archaic, eccentric charms to match (and she might've remained with him longer, if her work hours weren't so chaotic and demanding), and Shelly, the shrink who often found herself working with the marshal service, and seemed to him to be a well-timed, interesting diversion (and probably would've had a lot of potential if her dependent ex hadn't interrupted their first date).
Because of the trial-and-error process of all his romantic involvements from the span of his adult life - these five women included - the description of the traits he preferred in a girl went like this: one, she must not be so culturally ignorant that she can't tell the difference between folk lyrical genius and commercialized couplets, two, she needs to be low maintenance enough that she doesn't require an entire salon to be carried around in her purse, three, she must be physically attractive to him, but not so overt that she makes sex therapists grimace, four, she must be fairly self-accomplished but not so engrossed in her work that she can't hardly see the trees for the forest, and five (most importantly), she mustn't be dependent on him in any capacity - she's so much her own person that she doesn't NEED him, she WANTS him.
And due to the longevity (or lack thereof) his relationships with women seemed to have, the description of the formula of his dating life went like this: the first date was typically a coffee shop where the pressure was kept to a minimum, the second date tried to be just as low-key but with lunch a part of the equation and chemistry (were there any possible) would be immediately apparent based upon the tempo of conversation, the third date usually involved dinner at an upscale, dimly lit restaurant where sexual tension would be allowed to simmer, the fourth date was when he would take her salsa dancing at the Cooperage and attempt to teach her what he knew of the mambo (furthering physical contact but drawing a line), and the fifth date always ended up being when temptation would be breached and conquered, or rather, he would invite her over to his apartment for a demonstration of his prowess with herb crusted salmon, grilled zucchini, rosemary potatoes, and (the coup de grace) flourless chocolate cake - the subsequent night of passion being the rewards he reaped from being so meticulous with his drawn-out seduction - and hopefully another demonstration of his prowess with Rocky Mountain toast the successive morning.
Marshall, picky though he was, was a well-oiled machine when it came to women. A success. A testament to his gender.
Or so he thought.
Author's Note: Hooray, my first In Plain Sight fanfiction! It's been seeeeveral years since I've published something on (so much so that I can't remember the password on my old account, and deleted that email address long ago), so please be kind! I've been used to writing for myself, until now. But I love the dynamic between Mary and Marshall so much that I just couldn't resist publishing something here.