"You took me to…an arcade for our first date?"

Holly's voice sounded incredulous and completely unsure of my obviously wise decision.

"No, Holly, it's not simply 'an arcade', it is an all-in-one fun center! They have go karts, and mini golf, and terror cages in which they will fling balls at your face at a relatively high rate of speed and expect you to hit them with a tiny stick when probably you'll just get hit in the face."

"I believe they have helmets for that and, besides, I wouldn't get hit in the face."

I narrowed my eyes at her.

"What exactly are you trying to say, nerd?"

"I'm saying that you're the only one that would manage to get hit in the face were we to go into the batting cages."

"Well, batting cages have to be better than mini golf. I don't really understand hitting a ball lightly to make it go into a teeny tiny hole. I just want to hit the shit out of it, but then it flies off into the water and I have to walk all the way back to the silly shack to get another ball and the attendant gives me a dirty look. The whole mini golf thing is just an absolute disaster."

"So, if you didn't bring me here for the mini golf or the batting cages, then why are we here?"

"I thought you were a genius? Go-karts, obviously!"

I grabbed her hands and led her toward the little tiki shack where we could buy our tokens. We purchased the tokens from an attendant that seemed all too amused to have two giggling hand-holding girls speaking to him and ran out of the shack towards the go karts.

"You know if I beat you in the first race we're going to do the batting cages, yeah?"

"I'm not worried, you won't beat me."

"Keep telling yourself that, princess."

"You did not just call me 'princess', Holly Stewart."

"It appears I did."

"I am going to kick your ass."

"Save it for the race track."

She grinned at me as we pushed through the turnstile and into the line waiting for go-kart rides. I hopped up on the railing and sat down and Holly pushed her way between my legs and braced herself against me by placing her hands over mine. She was grinning from ear to ear and she looked so adorable and at ease. I am usually completely against public displays of affection but she looked too cute to not kiss so I leaned into her and gave her a quick kiss. Her eyes fluttered open slowly and a look of complete surprise crossed her gorgeous features.

"You just looked too perfect."

I said, by way of explanation. I wasn't sure it was possible, but she managed, the smile on her face widened. When the line began to move Holly slid us down the railing with remarkable grace.

"Ugh, why is this line so long?"

I whined and was met with a raised eyebrow from Holly.

"What? It's annoying!"

"You realize it's a Friday night?"

"So? We should be VIPs and just get right in."

"Any particular reason?"

"Justifiably, Holly, look at us."

"You want to waste VIP status on this place?"

"If it will get me to my go-karts faster, yes."

"Your impatience is astonishing, truly."

"Aw, Holly, did you just say you're astonished by me?"

"That would be the only thing you took out of that entire comment."

"Pretty much."

I grinned triumphantly and did a little wiggle on the railing to show my excitement. Holly chuckled softly and moved us down the railing again. When the attendant said two more people could fit in this run I was ecstatic. I hopped down off the railing and grabbed Holly's hand and ran towards the last two go-karts. I vaulted into my cart and bucked myself in. When I was finished I looked over at Holly and pointed two fingers in a v-shape at my eyes and then flipped them towards her. She waggled her eyebrows at me and blew me a kiss. I turned my head forward and waited for the green light to appear. I eased my foot onto the acceleration pedal and when the light hit green I floored it and took off well ahead of Holly. I felt a pang of victory but it was short lived and everything went to shit after that. One lap in and some asshole smashed into me and took me out of the whole thing. Holly drove by and waved at me like the magnificent bastard she is and I sat in my stupid go-kart grumpily awaiting an attendant to come rescue me. Holly, of course, managed to slaughter everybody because she is perfectly good at everything except not being a nerd. She met me at the exit and pushed through with me.

"So, batting cages?"

She smiled a soft smile, as if she was trying not to rub my defeat in my face.

"That's not even a fair loss. It wasn't even you that slammed me into the rail and ruined my fun it was that asshole!"

I gestured to the supreme moron of Earth who glared back at me.

"Keep walking, asshole. You know they have no contact rules for a fucking reason, right?"

Holly grabbed my hand and dragged me into a dark corner. She pressed her body flush up against mine and the heat of her skin made me gasp. Her hands ran from my waist to my neck and she pulled me in and kissed me deliriously until I was weak in the knees.

"You okay now?"

She breathed out the words so delicately I wanted to melt into a puddle at her feet. My mind struggled to come up with a coherent response and eventually failed to do so at all.

"Mmm."

"Batting cages?"

"Uh huh."

It took me a second before I comprehended what I had just agreed to and I protested at the realization. Holly slid her hands down my body to grab one of mine. I didn't want to go to the batting cages, I wanted to stay in that dark corner and make out with Holly like horny teenagers. Was that such a ridiculous request? Evidently, since she tugged me off in the direction of the horror show. We paid our tokens and grabbed a helmet and a bat. Holly went first and hit every single ball. It was actually infuriating watching the elegance she possessed. She acted as if hitting a tiny ball with a stick wasn't any big thing to her. Of course, it wasn't. Her body moved perfectly in-sync. I realized standing there watching her…that she was annoying as hell. How could one person be so great at everything? I decided then and there to make it my mission to find something Holly wasn't perfect at. She turned around when her round was over and held the bat out in my direction.

"Come on, it's cathartic."

Right. Cathartic my ass.

"I don't really, like, do sports."

She smiled widely at me and handed me the bat as I brush by her.

"It's not gonna kill you to try something new."

I set myself in the batter's box and waited for the ball to come. By waited, I mean waited in sheer terror. I tried to compose myself, bending the knees, holding the bat the way Holly did. I tried to look brave. I heard the faint whirring of the machine indicating that the ball was about to come to pummel me and my only defense was this stupid stick. I briefly contemplated holding it in front of me like a sword, but thought I would look even sillier than I was about to. When I saw the ball coming I swung at it, but my sheer terror caused me to release the bat, sending it flying in front of me, and I ran to the netting to hide from the ball while shrieking. Naturally, Holly was hunched over in a fit of laughter.

"Sorry!" I managed.

She continued laughing at me for a moment before composing herself enough to say,

"Actually, it might kill you!"

"Sorry" I said again, through laughter.

"I feel so humiliated! I told you I don't like sports!"

I stormed off in the direction of the exit and brushed by her as she continued to laugh at me like crazy.

"I'm leaving!"

I announced as I walked out of the batting cage area.

Holly followed me shortly after and sat down beside me on the bench I occupied.

"At least it didn't hit me in the face? I think that's pretty good, all things considered."

"I speculate that with a little work you'll be ready for the major leagues."

"Yeah, I'll be a regular Baby Ruth."

"Uh, that would be Babe Ruth."

"Yeah, Holly, I totally knew that. I was just seeing if you knew."

"I could take you on the ice to see if you can play hockey?"

"Right, coordination issues and ice skates. Seems brilliant."

"You're not very good at being Canadian, are you? Are you good at anything?"

"I can think of one thing…"

I snaked my arm around the back of her head, pulled her face to mine and kissed her slowly and deeply.

"Mmm, yep, that definitely makes up for all the rest."

Her voice had dropped and her pupils were dilated in pure lust. Which meant, of course, it was the perfect time to play with her.

"Come on, I need a win tonight."

I said in a very seductive voice. I stood up and pulled her up with me and headed toward the exit. At the last second before exiting the place I turned and pulled her into the arcade building and towards one of the police shooter arcade games.

"This is definitely not where I thought this was going."

Holly said, the sting of disappointment quite palpable in her voice.

I grabbed the red gun and she grabbed the blue. We inserted our tokens and the game began. Almost immediately she accidentally shot a hostage.

"Woah nelly! I killed a hostage! Was that a baby she was holding?!"

"Pull it together, Stewart, you only have two more fuck ups before they kick you off the force."

"Wouldn't they actually pull me off the force the first time I shot a woman holding a baby? Are they that desperate for manpower? I should be fired now."

"It's a video game. Settle down."

"That guy just hit me with two bullets! How am I still standing? And why can't I hit him?"

"Maybe because you're not aiming in the right direction? I'll get him for you."

"Oh my hero! You saved me!"

"I'm not sure you were worth it." I mutter out as she gets shot, yet again.

"Oops! That telephone looked like a gun."

"Thanks, you just lost the game for us."

"Glad to be of service."

She grins and then looks over the score screen as it descends to tell us our statistics.

"Look how awesome you did, though! Looks like you got your win for the night."

"Mmm, yep. Now I'm going home to collect my other win."

I smiled seductively at her and led her towards the exit.