Felix thought there was also more to Grayson’s not suing. The arrogant bastard was likely already too embarrassed by how pathetic and stupid he was being portrayed in the media. The guy was being heavily criticized for his behavior especially given the fact that he was a cop. He was probably hoping this would all go away soon, not looking to prolong it by taking Felix to court in what would certainly be a media circus.

Still, Cortez warned Felix that Grayson’s phone was no doubt ringing off the hook by hungry lawyers promising to get him a hefty settlement.

Months later, Felix wasn’t worried about it anymore. The idiot may’ve even been warned by his superiors to lie low because the story had been so sensationalized it even brought back to light other cops behaving badly in the past. The press had taken the story and run with it, and for once, Felix’s name wasn’t the one being dragged through the mud thanks to Grayson’s stupid ass.

But while Ella was the quintessence of poise and confidence when it came to their relationship, Felix wasn’t quite there yet. Her threat to get a restraining order on Grayson had been with a condition, if she had to. So far she hadn’t, but Felix still had to deal with the annoyance of hearing about Grayson being around her. For example, when Memo had gone with her dad to look through his things, Grayson had offered to haul back some of the stuff in his truck.

Grayson had already called and texted her to apologize for his outburst at the port. Ella told Felix that when he’d come to drop off the stuff he’d been very polite and well-behaved but he did ask to speak to her alone out front. To Felix’s utter irritation, even though Grayson had already done so, he just had to apologize again.

Ever since, Grayson was still showing up every now and again at her place and even once at the gym. But according to Ella, it was always for good reason: to sign off a fix-it ticket for her brother and then to drop off extra Dodgers tickets he’d gotten from work for her dad. The time he’d showed up at 5th Street was to drop off flyers for the L.A.P.D.’s cancer run, and, of course, he was the only one in the entire department who could do this. Since the whole cancer-awareness thing at 5th street was already fast on track and Ella was running that show, Grayson saw fit to drop off the flyers himself and have Ella be the one who walked out to get them from him. In the process, he’d kept her out there for a good ten minutes, which drove Felix nuts.

Of course Felix trusted Ella, but a small part of him struggled with the idea that she might still have feelings for the guy. The stories the media were still pumping about not just Adelina but him and Athena, and the now Oscar-winning actress Avery, didn’t help. It worried Felix that Ella would eventually get sick of it all. The media had begun to hound her too, and though she insisted she was okay with it, there were times he could see she was visibly bothered by it all.

Ella also assured him she was no longer having personal conversations with Grayson, but each time a new story broke, Felix couldn’t help but wonder how long it would be until Ella maybe vented to her ex. Maybe she’d admit he’d been right about this lifestyle not being for her and that the asshole had been right—her life was better suited for someone like Grayson.

Felix knew this stemmed from his past experiences with Bianca and Shelley. The fact that he was the famous Felix Sanchez hadn’t meant shit to them because their feelings for someone else had been that powerful. Felix knew all too well now how strong and impossible it was to just kill feelings for someone. He didn’t think he’d ever get over Ella now if she ever dumped his ass. And he sure as hell didn’t think he could take hearing that she might still have feelings for someone else—least of all Grayson.

For several weeks now, Felix had convinced himself that the fact that he’d been burned before was what was causing his paranoia. There’d been more than a few times now that he’d suspected she was keeping something from him and that she’d been acting weird. But he kept telling himself it had to be all in his head. Ella loved him. He knew this, and he needed to cut this shit out already before he blew it.

He’d been sparring for a while in the ring with Abel. Noah and Gio were real happy with how his training was going. They all agreed this rematch should be a guaranteed win for Felix. It still pissed him off that he’d blown his first fight with Grecco so badly. The guys had tried in vain back then to get his dumb ass to train formally as he was doing now—shut everything down and prepare nonstop like he’d always done. But he’d insisted he had things under control and the training, what little he’d done, had been a joke.

Nellie walked into the room with some paperwork for Noah. Felix and Abel had stopped sparring, and Abel walked over to talk to Nellie. She pecked him then turned to Felix, who was taking a drink of his water. “So I guess Ella took the whole day off. She said she might be in later, but I haven’t heard back from her, and she isn’t here yet.”

“She just blew off her class?” Felix asked, surprised and a little alarmed.

That wasn’t like Ella at all.

“No, I saw Carmen in there just now, so I’m assuming Ella asked Carmen to cover for her.” Nellie laughed. “That girl would never blow off a class just like that. You know that.”

“Let’s take these off,” Gio said, untying Felix’s gloves. “We’re gonna work on technique now and endurance.”

Gio said something else about no hard punching and wanting to know what knuckles were connecting, but Felix hadn’t heard much else. He was still caught up on Ella having taken the day off. She hadn’t mentioned anything about this to him, and he couldn’t help but worry now.