Tonight was all business. Technically, Drew had beaten him to the punch, but he had been ready to ask Ella if she wanted to join them for pizza.

Not socially.

Like Drew, he, too, thought it might be a good chance to get to know her better. Nellie had offered her a full-time position after all. She could very well be 5th Street’s newest employee. He did plan on spending more time at the gym, getting reacquainting with the staff and members. He’d been too detached from the place. It might remind him of why he’d worked so hard to get to where he’d gotten only to lose it all.

He also was truly interested in hearing more about Ella’s plans for the breast-cancer awareness program. From the sound of it, Nellie would be giving Ella free rein. He still couldn’t believe how young Ella was. She seemed so put together. Doing this at a pizza place with others around just seemed safer. She might feel more comfortable and speak more openly if she thought they were on neutral ground. Having Hector and the girls there would leave no room for her to misinterpret his intentions about wanting to get better acquainted.

Ella walked out the front doors with her friend. “Are we still waiting for Hector and them?”

“No.” Felix shook his head. “They went ahead of us to get the order in.”

“Oh, okay,” she said, crossing her arms tightly as the wind picked up again. “What place is this?”

“Barros on third. You know where that is?”

Carmen laughed and Ella smiled, nodding. “Yeah, we go there . . . a lot.” She took a step toward the parking lot. “So we’ll meet you there, then?”

“You two can jump in with me. No sense in taking two cars.”

His insides did that stupid thing again as Ella glanced at her friend. “I’m her ride,” she explained. “She came here with Sonia, so I’ll be taking her home tonight.”

“That’s fine,” Felix said, beginning to get annoyed about the weirdness in his stomach each time his and Ella’s eyes met. “I can bring you both back to get your car.”

The girls exchanged glances then shrugged, and now the weirdness was accompanied by a strange relief. What the hell was wrong with him?

For a moment, it dawned on him that the girls might think he was being a showoff when they saw his car. It was something that had never concerned him before, but he got this feeling that Ella wouldn’t be quite as impressed by his car as most girls. In fact, she might be turned off by its extravagance. To his surprise, she whistled as the car turned on before they even reached it.

“Wow,” her friend said, and for the life of him, he couldn’t remember her name. “This is amazing. What is it?”

“A Bentley,” he said, opening both side doors for them.

Thankfully, her friend got in the back, not that it should matter really. But even though he didn’t know either of the girls very well, he felt as if he knew Ella a little better.

The girls seemed to hush as he came around and got in the car. He knew they were likely talking about how insanely fancy the car was. For some reason, he couldn’t shake the fact that maybe flaunting his wealth in front of Ella wasn’t the greatest idea. Maybe it was what Hector said the other day. She was too humble for him.

Another not so good idea was inviting her friend to join them. But then Felix wasn’t the one who invited her. Just a few blocks into the drive, Ella referred to Carmen by her name so he at least knew the name of the person doing all the talking.

The whole fucking way there.

When they turned the corner and the parking lot of Barros came into view, Felix immediately realized what had seemed like a good idea earlier may’ve completely backfired. Hector’s calling ahead of time to let Barros know he was coming and they needed the back room, had apparently been leaked. The place could get crowded on the weekends, but it was the middle of the week, and the crowd in the parking lot was ridiculous.

Another dead giveaway that his showing up here had been leaked was Clive. Felix recognized his truck parked out front immediately. Clive was a reporter for one of the most notorious celebrity gossip shows in Hollywood. Clive, it seemed, had been assigned to follow Felix exclusively.

The camera phones were clicking the moment they drove into the parking lot. One glance at Ella and Felix could see she was already uncomfortable. “We don’t have to eat here if you’d rather not,” he offered. “I can call Hector and have him meet us somewhere else.”

“I’m okay with eating here.” Carmen piped up from the backseat.

Ella shrugged, still looking around guardedly as the camera phones were already flashing. “They’re not all gonna walk in with us, right?”

A guy wearing the restaurant’s shirt and an apron ran up to the window on Felix’s side, and Felix rolled the window down. “Mr. Sanchez, on behalf of Barros, I wanna apologize for this. We have no idea how the word got out that you’d be here, but we’re honored that you’d choose our establishment to dine at tonight, and we’d like to make your time here as pleasant as possible. If you come around the back, we’ve saved a parking spot for you. I can personally assure you as the owner that no one but your party will be allowed in the back room and you’ll have full access to the employee restrooms. Even the employees have been instructed to use the public restrooms while you’re here.”

Felix laughed. “No need for all that, but I would appreciate you letting me park in the back.” He glanced around. “I don’t think there’s any parking left out here.”