“Is that what she told you?” Grayson smirked. “I don’t know. I thought we had a pretty good time. Last night—”
“Stop it, Grayson.” Ella said, completely annoyed with him now. “Nothing happened and you know it.”
Out of nowhere, Hector and Abel were there. Felix turned to look at them as surprised as her father’s and Margie’s starry-eyed expressions indicated.
“What?” Grayson turned to Abel and Hector then back to Felix. “The big fighter needs his goons to back him up?”
Hector started toward him. “Who the fuck are you calling a goon, asshole?”
Felix grabbed Hector by the shoulder, and Abel pulled him back too then said something to him in a lowered voice about how he was only making things worse.
Grayson laughed and started walking away, but Felix went after him. “I’m not done talking to you.”
People around them were already taking pictures with their cameras, and the crowd watching the exchange was getting bigger. Ella even heard people around them already saying their names excitedly. “It’s Aweless Ayala and Sanchez!”
Hector and Abel were right there next to Felix. Grayson stopped and waited for Felix as he turned to Abel and Hector and lifted his hands then laughed. “Relax! I’m just gonna talk to him.”
He may’ve laughed, which Ella already thought was strange, but then she saw how fast his face turned to stone the second he turned back to Grayson. “This is the last stunt you’ll be pulling. You hear me?” Grayson’s face soured then he laughed, shaking his head. “She’s with me now,” Felix continued, his calm impressing Ella, but at the same time, it made her nervous.
It felt like the calm before the storm. Grayson was being an idiot, and she could see it in Felix’s body language. He looked ready to pounce if Grayson said the wrong thing. And the way Grayson was acting she was terrified he just might.
“Is that a threat, lover boy?”
“Not a threat just a fact,” Felix said, taking a menacing step closer to Grayson, who stood his ground and didn’t move back. “I’m her boyfriend now. Deal with it.”
Abel touched Felix’s arm when he got dangerously close to Grayson. Ella, whose heart was going a mile a minute now, couldn’t have been more grateful to have his two friends there.
Felix turned to Abel, his smile less convincing now. “We’re just talking. That’s all.” He turned to Grayson. “Right? We can talk this out calmly like adults. It’s all I want.”
“How ’bout you deal with this,” Grayson said right back in Felix’s face. “It’s not over between Ella and me until I say it’s over. All right? Keep flashing your fame and fortune at her like you do with all the girls you date. It’s all you have. She may’ve fallen for your well-rehearsed lines temporarily, but as soon as she gets a taste of the reality of being with someone like you, she’ll come to her senses. You’ll see. She’s not like all those soulless models and actresses you’re so used to doing this to, asshole.”
“No, she’s not,” Felix agreed with him calmly, but Ella could see it was a struggle now to remain that calm. “She’s a smart girl, and she knows what she’s doing, and you know this.”
Grayson turned to Ella now, his face a darker shade of red. “He’s just gonna fuck you and—”
Felix grabbed him by the throat, and the chaos ensued.
“It’s fucking over, you asshole!” Felix yelled.
Ella was pulled out of the now-moving crowd by her father as she brought her hand to her mouth. Miraculously, Abel and Hector were able to pull Felix and Grayson apart. But Grayson continued to taunt Felix about it not being over and continued shouting obscenities as Felix nearly broke away from Abel and Hector.
Ella begged Felix to ignore him and for them to just leave before the cops arrived.
“You’re nothing but a thug with money!” Grayson’s face was almost purple as Drake and his cousin held him back now. “She’ll see it soon enough, and then she’ll be right here”—he motioned to his side—“right where she belongs!”
Ella spun around, infuriated. “It’s over, Grayson! I want you completely out of my life. Do you understand? I’ll get a restraining order if I have to, but it’s over!”
Grayson shook his head as if he didn’t believe her. Her startling rant, however, seemed to calm Felix. When she turned back to him, he wasn’t trying to fight his way out of Abel and Hector’s hold anymore. He smiled at her, making her heart swell, and the emotion overwhelmed her once again. Abel asked Felix something in a lowered voice and Felix nodded.
“You promise?” Hector asked.
“Yeah, I’m cool,” Felix said, pushing Hector’s hand off him then rushed to Ella and hugged her. “You’d really get a restraining order on his ass?” he whispered against her ear.
She nodded, smiling, and then noticed all the people still taking pictures. Wiping her eyes, she looked around as the flashes on people’s phones blatantly went off again and again. “Let’s get out of here.”
They made a hasty exit, and she felt bad about not saying more to Margie or even Abel and Hector, but under the circumstances, she figured they’d understand why they couldn’t stand around and chat much longer.
Ella told her dad she’d meet him at home, and that’s when she remembered. Amidst all the chaos, she’d completely forgotten. “We have to hurry,” she said to Felix, walking faster alongside him.
“Why?” Felix squeezed her hand. “What’s wrong?”
“We have to beat my dad home. It’s a long story. I’ll explain on the way.”
Luckily, although it scared the heck out of her and she had to close her eyes a few times, Felix had quite the lead foot. Ella explained to Felix about her dad’s hoarding and how bad it’d gotten over the years. “He’s not dirty like some of those hoarders you see on TV. I know it’s what most people automatically assume when they think of hoarders, but my dad isn’t like that. It’s weird. His stuff is actually very clean and organized. He’s more of a collector of things like the tools he’d buy at yard sales and small appliances and actual collectables like Coca-Cola memorabilia. It was just boxes and boxes and totes piled high.”
Ella could feel herself doing the Carmen thing as the speed of her talking began to increase. So she tried slowing it down a little.
“I know I should’ve done something about it sooner, but it was like his therapy. It got worse with everything bad that happened: my sister’s death, my mom being diagnosed with cancer and then losing her, and then my brother’s ordeal. I just couldn’t force him to stop the one thing that I knew helped him escape. He kept saying he was gonna stop, but it kept getting worse. I did try. I really did—”
“Ella.” Felix’s grip went a little tighter on her hand. “It’s okay. You don’t have to explain to me. Hoarding is not an easy fix.”
She nodded, looking down at her hands. “It’s why Grayson had showed up so quickly after the earthquake. He knew about my dad’s issues and had warned me on more than one occasion that our living conditions were boarding on the hazardous. When Memo moved into his school dorm, we were able to open up some space in the front room by moving a lot of it into Memo’s bedroom, but within a few months the front room was down to one little pathway from the kitchen to the front door. I’d told Grayson about the previous earthquake that had been so much smaller making such a huge mess. And that’s how the idea came about to get my dad out of the house this weekend and clean out the house. The night we were at the emergency room my dad said he wanted to clean everything out but didn’t think he could, so I’m praying he won’t be too upset.” She glanced out the window. “Shit!”
“It should be okay, babe,” Felix said, letting go of her hand and squeezing her leg. “He probably realizes he was putting you and anyone who walks in that house in danger too.”
She shook her head. “No, it’s not that. I completely forgot I told Grayson I didn’t want my dad to be too upset that we threw all his stuff out, so I wanted to just store most of it somewhere. He offere
d to let me store it in his backyard, and then my dad and I could go over, and he could choose just the things that would fit in the small storage shed we have in the back.”
Felix’s eyes were back on the road, but Ella could see his jaw work. “Your brother could go with him instead, right?”
“Yes,” she said, running her hand over his thigh. “Unless Grayson’s gonna be a jerk about this too.”
Felix turned to her. “What? You mean like hold your dad’s stuff for ransom? He can’t do that.”
Already she saw him squeezing the steering wheel, and she could only pray Grayson wouldn’t be at her place when they got there. For a moment, she actually considered texting Nellie her address and having her send Abel and Hector there.
To her enormous relief, neither Grayson’s truck nor his squad car was there. Her father wasn’t home yet either. Ella braced herself as she walked up the front porch. She planned on taking her time unlocking the front door, possibly taking a few deep breaths before walking in, but Memo opened the front door before she could get to it.
“How was it?” He turned to Felix and greeted him cheerfully, doing the man shake thing then turned back to Ella. “Where’s Dad?”
“He’s on his way,” she said, looking past him.
Thankfully, it wasn’t completely empty. She and Memo had spoken about this, and she didn’t want her dad too traumatized by this. Even when her mother had been alive, their home had always been on the cluttered side but never to the point where her dad had taken it.
Ella walked in slowly and said hi to Sonia, whose eyes were a bit bigger than the norm at the sight of Felix in Ella’s house. She glanced around, unable to believe how spacious the house actually was without all of the boxes. As she’d requested, there were still totes under the dining room table and a few lined against the walls.
“Those all have the real important stuff, right?”
“Yes,” Memo assured her. “And the shed in the back is pretty much stacked to the door with the stuff I knew he’d freak out about if it wasn’t here. His bedroom still has totes but nothing stacked high, and he’ll actually be able to sleep in his bed again. Check out the kitchen.” Memo held out his hand for Ella to behold the newly organized kitchen.
Sonia smiled. “Memo and I thought if he could see how nice it is to be able to cook in the kitchen and not have to use that propane stove outside he might appreciate this clean-out a little more. So we made spaghetti.”
Ella brought her hand to her mouth. She hadn’t seen the kitchen like this in years. The counters and sink and stove were cleared off except for the decorations Memo and Sonia had left out. Her mother had picked out the old rooster stuff herself, and Ella hadn’t seen it in so long it actually choked her up.
The front screen door closed, and they all glanced at each other, eyes wide, then quickly walked back into the front room where her dad stood, looking very stunned.
“Daddy,” she said, her voice a little shaky, “we didn’t throw anything away.”
He didn’t say a word just kept looking around, and Felix squeezed Ella’s hand, nodding softly as if to say “it’s gonna be fine.”
Her dad walked past them into the hallway toward his room. Ella and Memo exchanged worried glances. They waited a little, expecting him to come out. When Ella heard his sobs, her heart jumped to her throat. She dropped Felix’s hand and rushed towards her dad’s room. “We’ll get it all back, Daddy,” she cried out. “I promise. I’m so sorry!”
Ella froze at sight of her father holding a pillow against his chest, rocking back and forth and crying like a baby. “I don’t wanna sleep in this bed without her.”
The second she was able to pull herself out of her stupor she was immediately at his side, arms around him and crying with him. “You don’t have to.”
It had never occurred to her that maybe that’s why he’d buried the bed so there’d be no way he could sleep on it. In hindsight, it did happen when her mom was first admitted into the hospice to spend her last days there. Ella had been so preoccupied and numb during that time she’d hardly noticed, and by the time her mom had passed, it was just the norm to see her dad sleeping in the back room. Her mother’s death had left her dad shattered. Ella didn’t dare scold him about what he’d done to the room.
Since then, she’d gently asked him every now and again when she saw him getting ready for bed in the back room when he was going to start cleaning the room so he could sleep in there again. His answer was always the same. “Soon, I promise.”
Her father had cried when her mother passed but nothing like this. Now Ella could only assume he’d held it together for her and Memo’s sake. It tore her heart out to know now what he’d been holding in all this time.
“I didn’t know,” she whispered, kissing the side of his face, her own tears streaming down her face.
Looking up to see Sonia holding her brother now as he, too, fell apart in his girlfriend’s arms only brought more tears. “You don’t have to sleep here, Dad. And we’ll bring all your stuff back if you want.”
Her dad shook his head, pulling himself together a bit because he no longer sobbed. But he did take a trembling breath, frowning at her when he saw her tears. He wiped one side of tears away with his thumb. “I didn’t mean to upset you, mija.”
She shook her head. “No, Dad, I’m sorry. I didn’t know this would be so upsetting to you. I mean I knew you might be a little, but I had no idea it would be like this.”
Her dad took a longer more determined breath. “I’m not upset about the cleaning, Ella. I should’ve done it a long time ago. It was a safety hazard, and I’d never forgiven myself if either of you got hurt. I promise it’ll never get that bad again.”
Ella hugged him tightly, so relieved he was at least taking that part well, but still felt incredibly emotional, knowing how much pain he’d been holding in all this time.
“We can trade rooms, Dad,” Memo offered. “All the rooms in this house are the same size anyway. And you’ll have more room for your, uh . . . totes in there since my bed’s a twin.”
“I won’t be refilling this house up again,” her dad said with a weak smile. “But I will take you up on that offer.”
Her dad stood up, wiping what was left of his tears away. “Let’s go check out the rest of this place.”
After thoroughly inspecting everything, they all sat down and had some spaghetti. Her father had been a good sport about it all, though she could tell he was trying real hard not to show any anxiety about his things being gone. She continually assured him that they hadn’t been thrown out and as soon as they could he and Memo could go down to Grayson’s and look through them.
Having Felix as a dinner guest definitely helped to liven up her dad’s spirits quickly. He seemed fascinated with all the stories Felix shared with him and very pleased to hear Felix’s story of how he and Ella met and how he fell in love with her. Felix’s account of how things went down and everything that had impressed him about the “Mighty Little Ms. Ella” made her blush and laugh at the same time.
It helped her escape the images of seeing her father so emotionally tormented, images she feared would be seared in her head forever. Felix kept squeezing her hand and rubbing her back.
When they were done eating, Ella offered to clean the kitchen since Sonia and Memo had cooked dinner. Felix immediately offered to help, but her dad wouldn’t have it.
“No, no! I’ll clean. It’s the least I can do. You go on and do whatever you had planned tonight. From what you tell me, it must’ve been tough being away from each other over a week.”
She told her dad not to wait up because she had a feeling she wouldn’t be coming home tonight. They drove to Felix’s house, and the drive was a bit somber. Ella was sure Felix was still thinking about the scene at the port. Add that to what happened at her house, and Ella was still raw with emotion.
Ella didn’t realize just how emotional she was still feeling until they got to Felix’s house and he came around
the car to meet her.
“You okay?” he asked, searching in her eyes.
She nodded, but she could already feel the lump in her throat, and trying to keep her lips from trembling was useless. The moment she felt his arms around her she let it out and cried against his chest. “I didn’t know he was still hurting so much.”
“You never get over a loss like that, baby. It’s good that he let it out like he did tonight.”
He held her there for a while as he stroked her back and head, kissing her every now and again on the head. Felix was right. It did feel good to let it out. Being in his strong arms only made it feel better.
Chapter 22
Felix
The weeks after the cruise as the fight hype began to gain momentum were nerve-wracking but not as bad as Felix thought they might be. He thought once the paparazzi got wind of his new girl they’d go to town making up stories and trying to link him with other women. He was worried that, like when he was with Bianca, he’d have his hands full trying to calm Ella and explain every bullshit story.
Thankfully, it never happened. Ella insisted she trusted him completely every time there was a new infuriating story out. The fucking paparazzi were relentless. The moment they got wind about him dumping Adelina, they were quick to come up with their elaborate version of the truth. Photos of him and Adelina arriving at hotels together or of him leaving Adelina’s place late at night or in the very early hours of the morning were suddenly everywhere. And, of course, they were recent, from his time here in Los Angeles just before he met Ella. Felix wanted to punch a hole through something every time he heard of another because he kept having flashbacks about how things went down with him and Bianca.
Fortunately, Ella handled it all as she did everything else with the utmost self-assurance. If she ever commented on the stories at all, she said the sincerity she felt from him when he told her he loved her and wouldn’t hurt her was all she needed. That didn’t surprise him since he’d never in his life felt so crazy over any girl—ever. What he was feeling for Ella now was almost scary. He never imagined someone having such a hold on him like she did. Ella owned him body, mind, and soul, but as scary as that was, he’d never been so happy in his life.
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