Ivana

"Stop staring!" I pulled up my hands to cover my chest as Ace shot me a casual smirk.

He'd talked me into walking slightly deeper into the lake and I'd freaked out when the water had started to reach above my shoulders.

Squealing from the cold, I'd pulled him backwards towards the edge of the lake once again but by then the water had already soaked through my dress, making it almost see-through and consequently, an object of fancy for Ace.

"Not my fault I can see your brassiere through it." He shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant as he chuckled softly at my flustered appearance. "Don't know what you're so worried about though," he paused to adjust his grip on my waist, his eyes dancing with amusement. "You're not very gifted-"

A loud splash of water.

I scowled. "If you can't say something nice, keep your mouth shut." I glared at him as he wiped the water from his face, his mouth slightly parted to catch his breath.

"Damn, you're so violent." He shook his head as I angrily dislodged his hand from my waist. Making sure I had a stable footing, I made my way back towards the rocks—waddling through the water slowly ignoring Ace's calls of protest.

He was still smiling when I climbed onto the rocks, getting back on my feet. Huffing, I threw him one last infuriated look and stomped back towards the car.

Ace followed not long after, his shirt unbuttoned and hanging loosely off his shoulders as he got into the car. I side-eyed him quietly as I quickly crossed my arms over my chest, still unhappy about the fact that I had let his stupid comments get to me and that, even though he was just kidding around, his careless words had struck upon my insecurities.

I had always been rather conscious of my body and after the death of my father, having my mother's frequently changing boyfriends pass not-so-subtle comments about my body hadn't exactly helped my self-esteem.

I had always been told that I wasn't pretty enough to be my mother's daughter and honestly, I didn't want to be. If being pretty was a justification for sleeping around and not being faithful to the ones who loved you, I was content with being not pretty.

All through middle-school and up till sophomore year, I was content with being one of the undateables because I was too flat-chested and way too stick thin to interest any of the boys.

Honestly, it was better that way. I didn't need to constantly worry about being slut-shamed, especially with the reputation my mother had garnered with her not-so-modest behaviour. Our cafe was quite close to my school and when my father died, almost every kid at my school knew about his death and how my mother had not taken even a month to move on.

And then, when after her whirlwind marriage to Damien, she and Damien divorced, I was introduced to new guys who were supposed to be my mother's boyfriends.

This continued throughout my sophomore and senior years. Every night before the day she brought them to meet me, she would instruct me to be nice to the men, and I did that for as long as I could.

I actually thought it was okay for her to want to move on from my father and that, she couldn't be lonely forever. But, as her choice of men started to be influenced less and less by their personality and more and more by how much money they could spend on her, my hopes to ever have a somewhat normal family again were dashed to the ground.

I couldn't imagine sharing the same house with conceited, unfaithful men who were neither loyal to my foolish mother, nor considered me and little Jer as anything close to their children.

I missed my dad. I missed him every day and every night.

He was the only one who'd ever told me that I was the prettiest girl he'd ever seen and actually meant it.

"Are you still mad about what I said earlier?" His voice snapped me out of my thoughts and I blinked repeatedly to clear my head.

"No, I have no false impressions about my body," I tried to smile even though my cheeks felt stiff.

Ace paused at the bitterness in my voice, regarding me carefully. "Hey...I didn't mean it like that." He spoke slowly, his eyes roving my face in a concerned manner.

My lips quirked. "I know. It just brought back some memories. It's not that big of a deal, really." I threw him a quick, almost playful glance. "Don't worry, I won't call the FBI on you."

It wasn't his fault that I had a bitter past and still hadn't gotten over it. For all he knew, he was just running his mouth carelessly like he usually did.

"You know that's not what I mean." Ace sucked in a breath. "I was just kidding, although I still shouldn't have said what I did. It wasn't fair."

I nodded. "Telling me I'm flat-chested is like telling you that your—

Ace cut me off with a loud snort. "Ok, let's not go there, missy."

I raised an eyebrow.

Sensitive, were we?

"What?" I feigned ignorance. "I meant brain. Being so inconsiderate of a girl's self-esteem is a clear proof of a small brain."

Ace rolled his eyes, suppressing a chuckle. "Yes, yes. Sure. Whatever you say."

I couldn't help but laugh along as his laughter warmed something inside me. He had no idea how approachable and friendly he looked in that moment, just leaning back on his seat casually, laughing without a care in the world. It was a welcome change from his usual high-strung self.

My gaze slid down the smooth column of his throat, down to his bobbing Adam's apple and without realising, I swallowed as well.

As my eyes moved further down, once again, I felt the heat rush to my face and I bashfully averted my gaze.

Ace seemed to notice it and smirked. "Just ask me to take my shirt off if you like it so much." He gestured towards his body cockily before twisting to face me. A playful grin was plastered on his face. "Say what? Do you want me to give you a little show right here? I swear I'm good."

I snorted. What was with the blatant flirting?

"On the contrary, I was about to ask you to button up your shirt in case you catch a cold." It wasn't exactly a lie, but it wasn't the full truth either. I wanted him to button up, but only once I was done staring.

It was unfair how my body looked like it had been hastily created by a very grumpy creator, while his looked like the one that angels had taken their sweet time making, carefully and lovingly sculpting every inch with their fingers.

"You seem much more likely to catch a cold than I do right now," Ace stated mockingly, making it a point to stare at my hands clutched in front of my chest and then at the damp fabric covering my thighs. "Plus," he grimaced a little as he probably thought of the leather seats I was sitting on. "-you basically made my car smell like moss."

He was right. Even though I had been sitting in the car for about fifteen minutes already, my clothes hadn't completely dried and the evening chill was slowly starting to get to me.

I sniffed a little, making Ace's lips quirk at the corners. It did smell like moss in here.

"Gee, sorry for ruining the car," I tried not to let the sarcasm seep into my voice.

God, I was so petty. First, acting like a total savage and slipping into his car wearing wet clothes and now, acting like an insolent brat.

Where were my manners?

"-but if only you hadn't forced me to take a dip in the lake with you-"

"Okay," Ace sighed, looking away as he held his hands up. "I think it's time to go home." He chuckled dryly.

I looked at his face, trying to gauge his mood but he didn't look pissed. Instead, he just looked acutely amused which surprised me. A few hours ago, he wouldn't have hesitated to answer back with an 'if only you' of his own, but now he was just smiling as he threw me another funny look before proceeding to button up his shirt.

"I see you're slowly starting to obey me. Makes me wonder what I should ask of you next," I bit my tongue. I really shouldn't have been testing his patience but he simply grinned.

"Whatever you want, Ivana." He laughed softly, slowly driving back to the highway. "Whatever you want."

By the time we reached back, it was already getting dark.

"Wanna hold my hand?" Ace extended his hand towards me, looking up at me with a hopeful smile as I bit my lip. He was being way too nice to me and I was having difficulty stomaching it.

I didn't even want to consider the possibility of it being due to the kisses, because if anything, Ace looked like he didn't care about it at all.

"Sure." I finally shrugged. Just holding hands wasn't going to hurt, was it? Plus, I wanted to get down safely. I hadn't forgotten how hard it had been to walk down the rocky path the first time I'd come here.

Come to think of it, Ace and I had already been here for a couple of days and I hadn't really missed anyone except Jer until today, which was strange because I was usually a people's person. I liked being around people as much as I liked having them around me.

"Why is the light on?" I frowned as we walked closer to the porch. "Did you switch it on before you came to get me?"

Ace shook his head, frowning. "No. I remember switching off all the lights myself. We're trying not to draw too much attention, remember? Leaving a random light on does little to help our purpose."

"Oh," I echoed silently, not knowing what else to say. Now wasn't really the time to ask him why exactly we were trying to keep low. The conversation was only going to get heated that way, plus, it was going to distract us from the problem at hand.

"Do you maybe think," I hesitated a little, as I saw our intertwined hands. Ace made no effort to pull his hand away even though I didn't really need him to hold my hand anymore. "Do you maybe think that someone came here while we were gone?" I quietly voiced my doubts as Ace's grip on my hand tightened.

"Maybe," He replied tersely. "That's a disturbing proposition but not very unlikely to happen. Maybe they really did manage to trace me down." His jaw hardened as he glanced at me, his expression serious.

I decided it was best to keep my mouth shut and just roll with it. I didn't think Ace was a bad person, but the way he spoke told me that we were dealing with some serious stuff. Or maybe I was just overthinking things.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked self-consciously. "Don't tell me you suspect me because I would never." I blurted incredulously.

He let out a gruff laugh. "I don't. You're way too innocent to do something like that." He shook his head, gazing at me intently. "I just—I just feel bad that you've somehow ended up getting entangled in this shit." He gritted his teeth and looked away, his voice full of regret.

I winced at his harsh tone. "I'm glad you finally acknowledge that." I tried to laugh to lighten the atmosphere but Ace didn't smile. Instead, he grimaced and gently pushed me backwards, stepping forward himself.

"We don't know if there's someone already waiting for us inside. So stay back," his hand rested on the door knob as he turned around to look at me. "Also, don't hesitate to run if you have to. You know the way back."

I rolled my eyes. "Only partly. I'm not running away anywhere in the middle of the night like this." I tried to appear confident as I tightly held onto the hem of his shirt. "Whatever it is, let's face it together."

Ace smirked. "Ready to risk your life for me already, baby?"

I made a face, trying not to look too affected by the way he called me baby. There was something awfully romantic about that ridiculously overused, cringeworthy word.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Ace. My phone's inside this house. I need to get that in order to reach anywhere. Also, I'm pretty sure I've had enough exercise for one day."

He grinned. "Can't argue with that one." He admitted and turned to the door once again.

None of us were surprised when we found the door already unlocked. Although, it did confirm our fears of someone already being inside.

Cold darkness welcomed us as we stepped inside, with me still gripping Ace's shirt like my life depended on it. I looked up at him as he looked at me grimly. "Let's do this, shall we?"

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Ok, so we are already on the tenth chapter of Coffee And Delinquency and I'm actually quite pleased with the rankings it's gotten until now.

I'm thankful to all the readers who are taking time out to read this story even if the updates have been kind of irregular in the past. I also hope that you're enjoying the story of Ace and Ivana and all else that's taking place.

With the current Covid-19 pandemic going on, I'm really trying to regulate my time and have come up with a somewhat regular posting schedule for this story and my other works.

I hope I'll be able to complete this story on time and update regularly. So far I've been able to do that for the last one week. Let's see if I can manage to keep it up for the next few weeks to come.

Wish me luck!