Wrapped Around Her Finger ✓

18. Date-date

Lina

"Here we are," Paxton announces as he parks.

I burst out laughing.

"Aw come on," he grumbles, nudging me.

"No, no, I'm not laughing at you. This is adorable. It's just that this is absolutely the furthest thing from what I'd expect you to want to do," I wheeze. We leave the car, and walk by the giant blinking pink and blue neon sign, 'Mini Golf', on our way into the building.

The serious and handsome Paxton Hayle, playing mini golf.

What a treat.

He shrugs. "Well you're around kids all day and you have to be the responsible mature one in charge. I thought you'd enjoy getting to relax and let loose," he explains.

"Thanks, that's really thoughtful," I say sincerely. I can't remember the last time I've actually relaxed.

The place is huge. 9 different courses. "We'll be here till they close if we do all of them," I tease, "let's do one set."

We go with the underwater themed course with 10 holes. I pick a neon green putter and ball, Paxton picks blue. The first hole involves getting your ball through a hole in a giant glowing shark's mouth. "If you think I'm doing that thing where I stand behind you and hold your golf club with you, you are sorely mistaken," he smirks.

I wordlessly hit my ball. It goes through the shark's mouth, and out the tail, straight into the hole. I stick my tongue out at him. "Didn't need you to anyways," I say smugly.

His smirk changes into a pout as he takes his turn. It takes him a total of four tries to get it into the mouth, then another three after it comes out of the shark's tail to get it into the hole. He mumbles something under his breath about the game being rigged.

I laugh and pat his back. This is going to be fun.

The next eight holes go more or less the same way. He looks very defeated by the time we get to the final one. "There's no shame in losing," I grin playfully as I begin to line up my shot.

Just as I swing, Paxton coughs loudly behind me, and I flinch - missing the ramp. My mouth drops open. "You did that on purpose," I frown at him.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he just chuckles and pats my butt as I walk by him, over to where my ball landed.

He ends up taking even more strokes than I did anyways.

I tally up our scores. "Well, it looks like I w-"

He snatches the card out of my hand. "Nope," he says casually and crumples it up.

"Hey! Don't be a s-" I begin but he quickly leans forward and kisses me, very effectively shutting me up. "-ore loser," I grumble after he pulls away, even though I can't stop a smile from spreading across my face.

He shrugs with a smirk. "Let's get dinner."

-----

"Oh my god, how did you manage to get reservations for a Saturday night here?"

We're standing outside of one of the city's most popular upscale restaurants. It's located along the waterfront, and has an amazing view. You have to make reservations weeks in advance to eat here.

"A family friend is the executive chef," he explains, "I pulled some strings."

"Aw, thanks Pax, that's so nice of you." I stand on my toes to kiss his cheek and he snakes his arm around my waist and holds me close to his side.