Ace - Book 1

Chapter 59.

Elle

15th January

    It had been two weeks. Two agonising weeks since I was at Ace's house. He had Avery for longer than he had intended and took time off school himself and for her so they could spend time together, and so in that time we hadn't seen each other and we had barely even spoken. It felt like he was ignoring me, like he didn't want to confront what he had said to his parents on that night. I hadn't admitted I heard every word and he hadn't asked, but I didn't even know if he understood or actually felt what he said to them. It might have been to spite them, to put across his point.

 However, it was Ace's last day with Avery and he had texted me asking if I wanted to join them for ice cream at a nearby parlour that we had visited once or twice when passing by it. He told me he understood it was rather cold for ice cream but that Avery had specifically said she wanted some and asked if I could come along with them.

 That's why I was sat outside of the Mr Mulligans Ice Cream and Dessert Parlour in my car, waiting for Ace and Avery to arrive. I hadn't been sat there a while before I saw his familiar car pull into the spot beside me, and I grabbed my bag and climbed out at the same time he was getting Avery out of her car seat in the back. "Hi Elle!" She shouted quite loudly and waved her hand at me as Ace lifted her onto the floor.

 "Hi Avery!" I laughed back, closing my car door before locking the door. I then smiled at Ace, my heart leaping in my chest because I was seeing him after a long two weeks apart. He wasn't shy in front of his sister, and very openly walked over to me, pressing a long and firm kiss on my lips. 

 "I missed you," he admitted shamelessly to me and I smiled.

 "I missed you too," I said back, pressing another shorter peck to his lips.

 "Eww, stop kissing! I want ice cream," she said and grabbed Ace's hand, dragging him to the entrance with her. He groaned jokingly but went with her, with me following close behind. "What's your favourite ice cream Elle? Mine is strawberry because it's pink, did you know it was pink?" She asked me.

 "I did, strawberry is very yummy but I've got to say that chocolate is my favourite," I said to her, laughing at how her eyes lit up when we walked into the delicious ice-cream shop.

 "That's funny, chocolate is Ace's favourite too," she said innocently and then skipped over to the counter to look at all of the ice cream. I turned to Ace with furrowed eyebrows.

 "Your favourite ice-cream is not chocolate," I said to him. I knew that very well because his actual favourite was rum and raisin, and I had incessantly mocked him for it both times we had been here in the past because it was also my grandad's favourite flavour.

 He shrugged. "She orders strawberry every time because it's pink, and then realises she doesn't actually like the taste. Her favourite is actually chocolate, so I order that myself and end up saying hers looks really good every time and beg her to swap for mine. It means she gets her favourite," he said like it was nothing but my heart melted in my chest. You wouldn't think this scary man, tattooed head to toe was actually a big teddy bear.

 "That's really cute, Ace. Be careful or you won't be scary anymore," I teased and he rolled his eyes, wrapping his arm around my waist. We smiled at the man behind the counter as we approached. "Two chocolate ice-creams please, one with rainbow sprinkles and marshmallows and the other plain, and one strawberry ice-cream please," Ace said, pulling a note from his wallet to hand over to the man.

 I smiled that Ace knew my ice-cream order from heart, and didn't mock me for having marshmallows and sprinkles on it. "Thank you," I said to Ace when he handed me my ice-cream, and Avery said thank you as well before scampering to a booth in the corner of the shop. It was pretty quiet, but you'd expect that from it being Winter and the people who were there were eating hot food from their dessert menu that had pancakes and waffles on.