He looked at her skeptically. “No way. You’re too young.”

She shook her head. “I’m an early December baby, so I started school a little early. Just made the cutoff.” With a sudden bashfulness, she added. “It was disappointing to say the least. One more year. I would’ve been a freshman your senior year.”

Her smile went even more playful before sipping her beer. Felix couldn’t get over how at ease she was talking to him despite the fact that she’d just admitted looking into what year he attended there then did the math. He’d gotten used to being amused that girls could be such total wrecks when they talked to him. Sometimes, just like her friend, they’d overdo it and talk way too fast because they were nervous. Ella had even asked Carmen very casually to slow down in the car. Meanwhile, just like now, Ella had been the essence of composed.

“Sometimes I regret missing out on high school,” he admitted, taking a sip of his beer.

“Really?” She tilted her head.

With every movement she made, Felix noticed something new about her, like now. Hector was right. Nothing about her popped out at you. She probably wouldn’t make your head turn at first glance, but he’d hardly call her plain. She had the kind of delicate features you had to study closely to appreciate. Like her lashes. They weren’t big and thick like the ones on the models and television personalities he was used to dating. But they were long and curved and appeared to be all natural, nothing fake. Everything about her was like that. But Hector was right about one thing. She wasn’t the type of girl he’d normally date. Ella was something else and then it hit him. That’s what it was. She was what he’d heard so much about and had never gotten it. Ella had natural beauty.

Felix stared at her for a moment, a little stunned. That’s exactly what she had. He’d noticed her flawless complexion earlier when Nellie had first introduced them. Ella tilting her head the way she did now had his eyes immediately on her neck. They followed her delicate neckline all the way down. It was just as soft, just as flawless, perfect for—

“But surely your worldly lifestyle made up for missing out on prom and homecoming, right?”

Ella’s comment pulled him out of his thoughts and thankfully so. Felix straightened out and focused on what she’d just said like he should’ve been doing the whole time.

“Yeah, but most of the stuff I’ve done I can do over and over or anytime. You only get to do prom once.” He stopped just before taking another sip of his beer, suddenly curious. “Did you go to prom?”

“Twice,” she said, smiling so playfully her eyes shined.

Felix couldn’t tell if she was teasing or being honest, but his insides were doing that thing again. “Did you really?”

“Um huh.” She nodded and sipped her beer again. “I was asked to go my sophomore year, and then I went again my senior year.”

“Touché,” he said with a smile. Of course she’d be asked more than once. To think if things had gone differently she might’ve gone with him. “You have a very sweet smile.” Once again, the words flew out before he even had a chance to think about them.

Not that he wanted it to but he sort of expected her smile to flat line in reaction to the compliment. It was what most girls did when he said something like that to them. But he was pleasantly surprised to see how poised she remained, simply raising an eyebrow and taking another sip of her beer. She never once broke eye contact—eye contact that Felix knew had gotten heavier and heavier each time. Yet he’d been powerless to back the hell off.

“Thank you,” she said when she was done swallowing the sip of beer. She glanced at Carmen, who was in the middle of telling Charlee and Drew something they were laughing about. “I need to go to the ladies’ room. Do you have to go?”

Carmen nodded, immediately standing up. Ella got up too and they excused themselves. It was only then that Felix saw Hector smirking and peering at him as he chewed on some cheesy bread.

“What?” Felix asked, reaching for a piece of bread.

“You hitting on Ella?”

“No,” Felix said, sounding more annoyed than he cared to admit that implication made him. “Can’t I say she has a nice smile without it having to mean anything else?”

Hector chuckled as the servers brought out the pizzas they’d ordered. He shook his head, reaching for a slice of pizza. “I don’t care if you are, you know. That’s Abel, not me, and I won’t say shit to him either if you don’t want me to.” He shrugged. “It’s none of my business if you’re planning on taking her back to your place or anything.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not,” Felix said, feeling a little panicked that Hector would just put it out there like that.

Had it been just the smile comment Hector had overheard, or had Felix really been that obvious? So she’d impressed him. She wouldn’t be the first girl to have done so. And this was a different kind of impressed. This was business, serious business because of the nature of why Ella was working at the gym: her brother’s girl being raped and the cancer thing in homage of her dead mother. This was nothing to be taken lightly and certainly not anything he’d undermine by using it as a means to get in her pants.

“I was gonna say you’ve been hogging her while I’m supposed to be interviewing her.” Drew smirked as she chewed her pizza happily.

“I know,” Charlee added with a playful smile. “And they were talking all low almost as if they didn’t want us to hear what they were saying.”