Torn for a second, he glanced at Noah then back at Hector, who both looked at him blankly with no answers. He could hardly believe he was doing this, but he headed back toward the break room.

Chapter 9

Ella

Drew and Ella hadn’t even finished speculating what Hector and Felix’s strange little outburst had been about when Felix walked back in the break room. Conner had laughed, listening to them as the two girls—mostly Drew—had gone at it. She’d been certain Hector had been teasing Felix about Ella. They all watched as he walked toward them, smiling sheepishly.

“Maybe he’s coming back to tell us what was so funny,” Drew offered as she crunched down on her celery stick.

Their conversation and Drew’s speculating had already gotten Ella’s heart pounding in that way she had zero control of calming. Watching him approach them only made it that much harder to stay calm.

“Hey,” he said, lifting his chin in Drew and Conner’s direction. Then his eyes were on Ella, and her insides fluttered as they always did now when he looked at her.

“Care to tell us what the joke was?” Drew smirked.

That flattened his smile a little, but he kept his eyes on Ella even as he shook his head. “You know Hector. He was just being an ass. Can I talk to you for a minute?” he asked Ella then glanced at Drew and Conner and back at Ella again. “Alone?”

Ella gulped, trying to keep her cool, but she knew better than to so much as glance at Drew. Without even looking at her, Ella already knew what she was thinking. “Um, sure.” She nodded, standing up slowly and looking around. “Where?”

Felix glanced around, too, then back at her. “Outside?” His eyes suddenly darted down to the table at her small Ziploc bag of cherries. “Unless you’re not done with your lunch.”

She shook her head quickly. “I wasn’t having lunch. That was just a snack.”

Drew lifted the baggy and held it out to Ella with a huge grin. “Take them with you.”

Ella took them and started walking away before Drew could do or say anything Felix might pick up on. As much as her insides were going absolutely nuts, she reasoned this didn’t mean anything. He could just want to talk to her about the classes or the breast-cancer-awareness walk.

Why alone?

It was what her head kept screaming despite her attempts to drown it out. She stopped trying to rationalize it. She’d know, soon enough. Instead, she concentrated on staying calm and collected. She even managed to glance at him and smile as they walked out of the employee lunch room.

“Did you decide on whether or not you’re taking the full-time position here?” he asked as they reached the escalators.

She exhaled slowly, relieved that it was business after all that he wanted to talk to her about. But it worried her. Was Nellie losing patience with her? Is that why she’d sent Felix to ask her instead of asking herself?

“I’m sorry I’ve taken so long to get back to you guys.” She leaned against the escalator rail and looked up at him. “I just wanted to be absolutely sure before I commit to something so big, because it would mean me quitting my other job. I’ve also been acting as the stand-in assistant manager there until she gets back from maternity leave, and I hate to leave them hanging. But she’ll be back this week. I did tell Nellie I’d have an answer before the end of this week. Did she send you—?”

“No, no,” he said quickly. “I was just curious. Nellie hasn’t mentioned anything about it. I wasn’t even sure if you’d gotten back to her or not.”

“Oh,” she said a little relieved but also confused. “Well, yeah, more than likely I will be taking it. I’m just waiting for this assistant manager to get back before I make my final decision.”

“Don’t rush on my account,” he said as they reached the bottom of the escalators. “No one asked me to ask you. I really was just curious.”

Just curious. Like he’d been about Grayson. The statement only served to rattle her further. She nodded as their eyes locked like they had so much the past few weeks, and the realization set in. This wasn’t what he’d wanted to talk to her alone about. Once again, her insides roiled. They were stopped several times on the way out by people wanting to say hi to Felix. Some even asked if he could pose for a photo with him, but he declined, saying it wasn’t a good time for him.

As they continued to walk in awkward silence, they were stopped yet again, this time by a trainer wanting to introduce Felix to his newest trainee. The exchange between Felix and the young wide-eyed and obviously adoring fan reminded her of Grayson’s blunt words. She’d finally answered his call days after the night at the gas station. Even though she’d insisted that her relationship with Felix was nothing more than a business one and that she’d just met him the day Grayson had seen them together, he still made sure to point out one thing—that Felix’s world and hers weren’t even in the same galaxy.

“You’ve heard all the stories about him,” he’d said. “If he does decide, just for giggles, to make you another notch on his belt, I hope you’re not silly enough to think you’d be any different from any of the other girls he bags all over the world. And I’m being nice referring to them as girls. You and I both know only a whore would give it up to someone she knows she has no chance of anything real with. Don’t lower yourself to their level, Ella. You’re better than that, and you know you deserve more.”