Ace

"You want me to do what?" I rasped surprised, looking at a hopeful Ivana who was squinting up at me, a hand pressed against her forehead shielding her eyes from the sunlight outside the cafe.

"I want you to fix my signboard. Maxie isn't here yet—" She mulled over the idea as she spoke. "Not that it would've made much of a difference because that guy is clumsy as fudge."

Frowning, I glanced down at my own coffee-stained shirt on which she had accidentally spilled coffee just a few minutes ago and nodded to myself.

Yeah ok.

It was incredibly cute how she rambled on about someone else's clumsiness while being clumsy as fuck herself.

"—plus, you're the tallest guy I know. I promise I'll make you another, better cup of coffee if you do me this favour." She smiled bashfully, her face flushing as her mortified gaze slipped to my ruined shirt.

"I'll also go look for something you can change into." She offered. "I hope you won't hold a stupid mistake against me."

I smirked to myself.

Hold something against her?

Never.

"Sure. I'll see what I can do." I tested the step-stool for balance and stepped up on it as Ivana rushed to grab it.

"For extra support." She shrugged, a stray lock of hair escaping her messy bun to dance across her flustered face and inevitably, I found myself staring.

"Uh what? Yeah." I cleared my throat embarrassed as she handed me a screwdriver.

"You just need to tighten the screws holding the metal frame so that it doesn't fall off." She pointed at the signboard and I focused on the task on hand instead of staring at her parted lips like a bloody idiot.

I was so distracted, I didn't even realise that I had been staring at the same spot on the bright red brick wall for the past two minutes without having spotted a single loose screw, until she called me out.

"You're not looking at the right spot. You need to look a bit higher than that, Ace." She pointed out, her tone chiding and I blinked before quickly looking up.

There it was. Not one, but two loosened screws carelessly tightened into the frame in a way that one strong gust of wind could easily rip away the entire signboard in just one go.

"Got it." I flashed her a quick thumbs up before placing my thumb and index finger around the small screw, and tightening it as much as I could. Finishing up the second screw, I looked down at her again. She was still clinging to the step-stool as she looked up, biting her lip anxiously.

"Are you done?" She questioned.

"Yeah." I paused. "You wanna come up and take a look for yourself?" I suggested despite knowing that there was absolutely nothing left to be looked at. I had done a perfect job. I just wanted to watch her clambering up on the step-stool and have her clinging onto my shirt again.

She'd been so tense since the morning. I guess waking up so early, preparing for the cafe's opening alone while also simultaneously juggling the responsibility of babysitting her brother and handling unforeseeable circumstances like an off-balance signboard and an unexpected guest could be pretty rough.

"I probably should." Ivana nodded, beginning to step up the stool as I grabbed onto the ledge on top of the cafe and stepped backwards, making space for her stand on the stool.

Offering her a hand, I pulled her up, ignoring how her cute little bun bounced as she stood up on her tippy toes trying to peer up at the now tightened screws. The action caused her top to slightly rise underneath her overalls and I practically choked on my own saliva as a perfectly smooth strip of her olive skin came into view. As I felt my gaze slipping up from her waist to the delicate curve of her neck, I realised that I hadn't really noticed how pretty Ivana was before.

I had been so preoccupied with my past and with keeping her out of my fucked up life that I had completely—well, not completely but considerably disregarded my developing feelings for her over-impulsive and very, very pretty self.

"What's happening here?" A suspicious voice made both of us look down as a huge smile appeared on Ivana's face.

"Maxie!" She basically screamed with happiness as she launched herself in the boy's embrace. I raised an eyebrow, a surprisingly bitter taste lingering in my mouth.

Maxie?

"Who's this? Pretty sure I've never seen him around." The handsome, brunette boy shot me a look as I tried to keep my expressions normal. From what I'd seen on the first day I'd come here and from what little Ivana had told me about him, he was just some amateur guitarist who at times got so lost in his music that he totally forgot what went around him.

But looking at his dark green eyes, flashing bright with a strangely knowing look in them, I doubted that it was true.

He had definitely seen me around more times than one and something in his wary eyes told me that he wasn't actually curious about me, but about the relationship I had with Ivana.

The way he was looking at me, as if he wanted to pummel me to death with the guitar he was clutching in his other hand, he clearly seemed to have an instant dislike for me and I didn't see any other reason for it except that he liked Ivana and felt threatened by my presence next to her.

"He's Ace." Ivana piped up, throwing an arm around Max's shoulders before I could say anything. "He visited not long ago and I just came to know him somehow."

"Hi, nice to meet you buddy." Max smirked at me as he held out a hand towards me. "I'm Max, Ivana's boyfriend."

I raised an eyebrow as he was immediately met by a painful smack on his shoulder. He winced in pain as Ivana turned to face me with an embarrassed smile. "Don't listen to him. I don't have a boyfriend. Maxie just has a habit of acting all territorial whenever he meets any of my new friends."

"Hey, don't call me Maxie!" Max snapped playfully, but I could hear the desperation ringing in his voice. Of course, he felt the need to establish himself as an important figure in Ivana's life in front of me since it put him at a great disadvantage to have Ivana so very casually hanging out with someone who was not him.

It was the typical cliche situation. A clueless girl, her guy best friend who's secretly in love with her and a new guy on the block who the girl is beginning to like...at least I hoped that Ivana had those sort of feelings for me. Or else it'd be one fucked up ending for me.

I watched their banter carefully. It wasn't that I wanted to. I just had a very keen sense of observation that had developed curtsy of my close encounters with the police and the state's law enforcing mechanisms. I just couldn't help observing people and reaching the conclusions that I needed to reach.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever, Maxie." Ivana continued teasing him and it was clear that whatever she felt for him was not beyond what a friend felt for another friend but Max...his was a totally different case and I didn't understand how she didn't see it.

Max looked clearly irritated as he fixed me with a somewhat sullen look. "Are you following us in or what?"

I looked at Ivana who just bit her lip, her cheeks developing a little bit of that pink colour again as she softly shrugged.

"I mean, I did promise you a drink and a shirt you could change into." She muttered, turning around to step into the cafe as she beckoned me with a wave of her hand. "It's ok, come on in. If you don't have anywhere else to be that is."

Ivana

"Who's this platinum haired lunatic that you're hanging around?" Max whispered fiercely as soon as Ace was out of earshot. I had handed him a spare staff T-shirt with Caffe Italiano written across it in bold capital letter and he was off to change into it, walking to the back of the cafe, quite near to the table that he had first sat on when he'd been here.

From where I was standing, I could clearly see his back. My lips parted as my eyes strayed to his naked back. He'd pulled off his ruined shirt in one smooth move and had one arm through the new t-shirt, his bright straight hair tousling up as he pulled it down to his snatched waist.

"Stop staring at him." Max bared his teeth and I jumped.

"I am not," I muttered distractedly, still looking at him in my peripheral vision. His black jeans were snugly fitted around his lean yet muscular frame, sitting low on his hips. And he had no underwear band showing from underneath his jeans. Just the fact that he wasn't like other immature guys around me who actually thought that flashing their underwear to girls was sexy, made my heart flutter a little.

"This is exactly why you should stay away from guys like him, Ivana." Max interrupted the flow of my thoughts once again as he neared me, his face the most unsmiling that I'd seen in a while. "They're dangerous. They're not good for you."

I rolled my eyes. Yes, maybe Ace was a bit out of the ordinary. Sure, he had a secretive life and was different from others. But that didn't mean that he was dangerous.

"You're overreacting, Maxie." I shook my head, patting his shoulder indicating him to back off and give me some space. "The boy's harmless. He has known me for less than a week and yet, he so kindly fixed the signboard that was in such a precarious condition. The least we should do is thank him. He's done me a favour so even if you don't like him, at least be polite."

"How long do you exactly know him for?" Max narrowed his eyes at me, suddenly stopping all action.

"About two days?" I shrugged, already feeling like a fool. Of course, he was giving me the look that he was—like I'd suddenly grown two heads. If I was him, I'd question my sanity too.

But he hadn't spent a whole two days and two nights with Ace.

Max looked like he was slowly catching up.

"And do these two days have anything to do with the two days that you went...missing?" He pursed his lips as I stared at him in subtle surprise. I never thought Max was that smart, or that he'd ever put two and two together without even being told anything.

"Aren't you gonna answer me, Ivana?" His voice was no longer a suppressed whisper now. He looked angry, mad almost. "Just tell me where you were for the past two days, will ya?"

I sighed through my nose. Why was he acting like he was my freaking guardian when he didn't even call or text me the entire time?

"Just leave it. I was somewhere I had to be." I muttered impatiently.

"And that somewhere was with-with this guy you met not even two days ago, I'm assuming." He spat.

I glared at him. I really didn't want him to go all detective on me now. Not in front of Ace.

"Look I get you were worried, but I'm back now, aren't I?"

"Worried?" Max scoffed, throwing his hands in the air as he carelessly shoved his guitar to the side.

He never did that.

"No, Ivana. I was not worried! I was fucking terrified that something had happened to you. I didn't call you or text you because I knew you were just going to push me away like you always have!" He yelled as I stood transfixed, totally shocked and confused at his sudden outburst.

This was so unlike Max. He never lost his calm like this. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ace halt in his place as he stared at us, his face  expressionless. .

"W-Why would I have pushed you away, Maxie?" I began as I gazed at him imploringly. "You're my friend. Why would I ever push you away?" I tried to reach out for his hands but he just pulled them away.

"Never mind." He shot Ace a bitter look and then looked at me. "Just...let it go for now. We'll talk about this later." Muttering lowly under his breath, he simply stalked behind me to change into his work uniform as I stared at him dumbfounded.

Just what had gotten into him?

"I think I'll have my free drink some other time." I whipped around, still feeling out of sorts as he passed me a small, tentative smile. "Also I'll return this tomorrow." He tugged again the shirt and then turned around and left.

Hoohoo, look who posted twice in the same day.

Anyway, what do you think of the story so far? Do you think Ace is correct in his observation that Max likes Ivana or is it just friendship making Max blow up like that?

Do not forget to share your feedback with me because it matters a lot to me and will help me make this story better.

Thank you for reading.