Bringing him back

The End

"I'm sorry!" Autumn shrieks, covering her face with her hands. James shrugs it off and grimaces slightly. Autumn groans.

"No, it was my fault. I should have been paying attention." he says.

"I'm sorry! I told you I was no good at tennis. Honestly, I'm awful. You sure your nose is okay?" she asks, walking across to court to James. He touches his nose gingerly.

"Yeah, It's fine. Next time though, make sure I'm ready when you serve the ball, okay?" he teases. She groans again.

"You're going to make me serve again? After that?" she asks disbelievingly. He nods his head.

"I'm fine! It was my fault. And you made it over the net this time! That would have been a perfect serve if I had been paying attention. Here." James says and he tosses the ball back to her. Autumn looks at it in her hands uncertainly.

"Get over there! I'm going to make you a star tennis player." James tells her reassuringly. She gives in and walks over to the other side of the net. She hesitates and then throws the ball up into the air and hits it with the racket. Much to her surprise, it went over the net and James hits it back to her. Flustered, she awkwardly tries to hit the ball back to him. It makes dull contact with her racket and bounces on the ground a few feet away from her. She sighs, picks it up and tosses it to James.

The next half hour didn't go any smoother than that. Though Autumn's serves got eventually improved, she could never seem to hit it the ball back to him. To James' credit, he didn't give up on her, no matter how many times she told him that it was alright, and she was never good at sports anyways. When that didn't work for her, she eventually complained about the cold enough that he gave in. Happily, she skips back to the car.

"So what's our next activity?" Autumn asks, her cheeks flushed from the cold. She had one hand on the car handle, waiting for him to unlock the door.

"I'm not telling." he says with a smile playing at his lips. Autumn scoffs.

"Why not?"

"It's funner this way."

"More fun." she corrects. He gives her an, 'Are you kidding me?' look. She smiles and sticks her tongue out at him.

"Oh real mature. I see you've grown up a lot since we were eight." he jokes as he unlocks the door. Autumn smiles as she throws the tennis rackets in the back seat of the car and gets in. James starts the car. Autumn pushes the air vents towards her to try and warm up her hands, which had gone red from the cold.

"So where are we going?" Autumn tries again as James backs out of the parking lot. He just smiles and shakes his head. Autumn sighs dramatically, making James smile.

"You're so impatient. We'll get there in like, ten minutes." he says. Autumn sits silently in her seat, racking her mind for places within a ten minute radius.

"Are we going...To the movies?" she asks. He shakes his head no. She tries again.

"Are we going...To the grocery store?" she asks, and James laughs.

"Yes. I'm taking you to the grocery store. That's the kind of romantic guy I am. I'll walk you past the fresh produce and after that we'll go down the scenic cereal aisle. Was that even a serious question?" he says, chuckling.

"Well I don't know! It looked like you were going that direction. But then you turned and I have no idea where we are. I've never been this way before." Autumn says, frowning at the unfamiliar settings. James just smiles and begins humming along to the radio. Autumn leans back in her chair, enjoying the dry heat that was blasting on her. Her mind begins idly wandering until she feels James slow down and turn into a parking lot. Her head perks up right away.