Page 47 of Letters to the Lost

Zander turns around, her arms falling slightly, and her hands resting on the side of his hips.

“What do I have to do to get them? I’ll do anything, Princess,” Zander begs her looking down at her with soft eyes, reserved just for her.

Biting my lip to try to contain my laughter at my massive six-foot-four tall friend begging our girlfriend, when I’ve seen him knock a man unconscious with a punch is the best entertainment ever.

“You could do my hair for me,” she suggests as she reaches up on her tiptoes to run her fingers through his hair.

“Def-”

“Oh my god, Parzival! Baby!” Autumn squeals, dropping her hands from Zander's hair, rushing past us both to the dog in the car.

“I’m starting to have a real problem with those dogs,” Zander grumbles, crossing his arms over his chest as Autumn coos at Parzival, who is happily soaking up all the love and attention from her.

“Do you think if we asked her to choose between us and the dogs that we’d all be single by tomorrow?” I jokingly ask Zander, already knowing the answer.

“I would choose you, wouldn’t I baby?” she baby talks to the dog, ignoring us completely in favor of cuddles from him.

“Fucking dogs,” Zander groans before walking over to Autumn and prying her away from the dog, “Princess, you have a surprise waiting for you with Sebastian. Let me get Parz out and you can say goodbye before you leave.”

After a long goodbye to the dog, and a hug and kiss for Zander, Autumn climbs into the passenger side of the SUV with a wide grin on her face.

“What’s my surprise?” She asks.

“A surprise, obviously,” I deadpan, resting my hand on her thigh as we drive. “Just get comfy Sunshine and tell me about your day.”

She tells me about her day as I make the forty-minute drive to her surprise, the snacks and blankets are already set up in the backseat for us.

When we pull up outside of the drive-in movies, Autumn turns to me with a blinding smile.

I can feel my heart beating erratically against my chest as I look at her. We haven’t exchanged I love you, yet. I wanted to make it special for her, for her to know I mean it when I say those words to her.

She lights up my life, every single day, and the idea that I could have lost her before I said those words makes me feel ill.

That she could have left this world, not knowing how I truly felt about her.

“Sebastian?” Autumn softly says my name, bringing me back from my thoughts as she entwines her fingers with mine.

“Yeah, Sunshine?”

“Are you ok?”

“Yeah, I was just thinking.”

“About what?”

“How much I adore you. That I could have lost you before I ever got to tell you that I love you,” I tell her, my hand tightening around hers as I do. I know she loves me back but the feeling of never being good enough sticks with me.

“I love you, too,” she responds, her rosy lips kicked up into a small smile as she looks at me.

Pulling the car up to the ticket booth, I roll down the window and collect the tickets I ordered earlier for us.

“I’ve always wanted to do this,” Autumn tells me, her cheeks flushed as she smiles brightly at me.

“I’m glad I get to be the one to do this with you,” I tell her, returning her smile.

And I mean it too, getting a first with my girl fills me with a sense of satisfaction knowing that whenever she thinks about the film or goes to another drive-in movie, she’ll remember this, and I plan to make it as memorable as possible.

“What are we watching?” She peers over at me, her eyes filled with excitement.

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