Endless Fighting

Chapter 44: Cut It With The Compliments*

"Oh I am going to keep my eyes on you Max," Ace said and I probably looked like a tomato. Honestly, I am not one to blush, but I just couldn't help it when Ace said that.

"Wow, I made you blush Max. But you should know that your eyes are so dazzling," Ace said and I giggled.

"You need to cut it with the compliments, Swift," I said and he laughed.

"Why should I stop when it seems like you are enjoying it?" he challenged and I rolled my eyes, "Did I just render you speechless Evans?"

"Please, I am just keeping my mouth shut so I don't bruise your ego," I denied and Ace chuckled.

"You are something Max," he said.

"I hope that something is a good thing," I said and I finally noticed how close our faces were. If I just budged a couple of inches, our lips would touch, but I didn't want to ruin what we had together. Besides, he said that he wasn't ready for a relationship, especially since we spent so much time apart from each other. I settled for wrapping my arms around his neck, pulling him closer to me, and resting my head on his shoulder. I heard him breathe in sharply, but he didn't protest or say anything else after that.

***

"Do you want to come in?" I asked to Ace as he stood on the doorstep of my temporary safe house.

"Yeah, if that's fine," he said shyly digging his hands into his front pocket.

"You can meet John," I said opening the door and tossing my keys on the counter, "Hey J! Come out for a second." John emerged from his bedroom and smiled at me.

"Ace, this is my partner John Walter, and John this is my friend Ace Swift."

"This is the Ace you have been telling me about all these years," John said coming closer to shake Ace's hand.

"You have been talking about me?" Ace asked raising his eyebrow.

"Yeah I did, but maybe some of them aren't good things," I said crossing my arms and Ace rolled his eyes.

"So you are the one that recruited Max," Ace said leaning against the counter.

"Yeah, I saw potential in her, but I wasn't the only one. The Director wanted to recruit Max as well," John replied casually.

"Well she seems happy with her career choice, so I am happy for her," Ace said and I gawked at Ace's answer. He seemed so calm about it, even though he basically blew up at me before about the whole misunderstanding with John.

"Yeah, she was kind of suspicious of me when we first met," John said and Ace tilted his head in surprise.

"What do you mean by that?" Ace asked.

"Well she was sitting in the park alone and I came over to talk to her. She said that she was facing a lot of problems and I blurted out 'Was it street fighting?' I literally had to show her my FBI badge, in case she like beat me up or something," John said chuckling lightly.

"Excuse me for thinking that you were a stalker. Not a lot of people know that I street fight or used to street fight," I said and Ace chuckled.

"Your reaction was probably priceless though," Ace said and John agreed.

"So what do you work as?" John asked.

"I am a mechanic at Ty's repair shop---the place that Max always go to," Ace said and I nodded.

"That was the reason why I ran into Ace," I added on and John chuckled.

"You seemed so stressed out about how you ran into Ace-," John said before I raised my hand to shush him.