Chapter 13
Malibu, California
Ella’s first few days in Malibu were filled with throwing up, sleeping, reading, and waiting for Ben to come home.
Ben insisted that Ella find an OB/GYN and be thoroughly checked out.
He was worried about her. He read that sucking on ginger candies helps with nausea and ordered some.
They helped a little, but for the most part, it was still brutal.
Ella found a doctor who was in her mid-fifties with frizzy gray hair and a large welcoming smile named Dr. Mary Kleck.
Ella liked her immediately. After examining Ella, Dr. Kleck declared that even though Ella had lost quite a bit of weight, her overall health was quite good.
At that initial visit, the doctor did an ultrasound.
Ben and Ella sobbed when they saw their baby’s heartbeat on the screen.
Of course, it was too early to know the gender, but seeing that little blip on the screen beating connected Ella and Ben with their baby in a way nothing else could.
The second thing Ben insisted they do was to get Ella a credit card and set her up a checking account so she would have funds for whatever she needed.
At first, Ella refused, feeling self-conscious about taking Ben’s money.
Ben won her over by explaining that as they were going to be married, it only made sense to go ahead and get everything set up.
Besides, he argued that she would be doing most of the food shopping. In the end, Ella agreed.
Ella was shocked when she saw her balance for the first time.
She had never had access to that much money in her life.
She was pretty sure her parents hadn’t either.
It was very unnerving. With such a ridiculous balance, she really did not need to worry about over-spending, but old habits die hard.
She watched every penny and kept every receipt to give to Ben.
She had grown up seeing her mother pinching pennies and handing over receipts to her father.
After the third time Ella did this, Ben sat her down and reminded her they were a team and what was his was hers.
The money was for her to buy what she wanted, when she wanted it.
She did not have to justify anything. Ben also explained that she did not need to worry about the balance because more money would be added each month as needed.
When Ella asked Ben where the money came from, he said investments from the art sales of his first father, Tommy Thompson.
If Ella had needed a reminder that they came from two completely different worlds, this would have been it.
Ben had such a cavalier attitude toward money.
She wondered if that came from having done nothing to earn it.
Money seemed to mean nothing to him. It was just a given in his life.
On the other hand, Ella knew from cold, hard experience that money earned was painful to part with.
She wondered if Ben had ever had to earn a dime in his life.
She’d bet not. She did not mean that negatively toward him. She loved him. It was just who he was.
Ella thought perhaps that was the biggest difference between them.
Everything she had ever gotten, she had earned: money, education, her future.
To Ben, those things came easily. To her, they were valuable prizes to be earned with hard work and careful planning.
This led Ella to ponder if being given everything had somehow cost Ben something intrinsic that could not be bought or given.
Ella also knew that Julia and Sophie would call her nine kinds of crazy for overthinking everything in regards to money.
They would tell her to be grateful, that she was one of the lucky ones.
Ben loved her and wanted to spoil her. She should shut up and enjoy it.
Given Julia’s track record with men, Ella knew she would be right.
So she decided to stop overthinking all of it and be grateful that Ben was in a position to provide for her and the baby.
She would make sure he knew how much she appreciated him.
Money and marriage worries aside, over the next few weeks, Ella and Ben settled into a comfortable routine.
Sometimes, it felt like they were playing house.
They ate dinner together every night, then they spent a couple of hours either playing hotly contested games of chess or watching movies.
Those hours spent together, eating, playing, laughing, or just lying around watching a movie were the best.
During these weeks, Ella became aware of how seriously Ben took sports, or at least Razorback sports, specifically Arkansas football.
Ella had grown up with her father and brothers obsessed with soccer.
They followed it like a religion, and they each had their favorite teams. They spent a ridiculous amount of time discussing plays, trades, and games.
All of that paled in comparison to how Ben felt about his beloved Hogs.
It seemed to him a foregone conclusion that Ella would love watching the games as much as he did.
Their first three Saturdays together had been planned around the games.
Ben would rant and rave at the television.
Afterward, he would try to engage Ella in deep discussions about the plays, calls, and performances of the coaches and players.
At first, Ella found this challenging. But being Ella, she researched it and to her surprise learned a lot about the offensive and defensive plays for the sport.
She also researched the team and the coaches.
In a very short amount of time, she learned more than she ever wanted to about it all.
She knew in her heart that she would never be a true fan of the game, but she had learned enough to fake her way through a conversion.
Ben did not seem to notice Ella’s lack of true interest. He took it for granted that of course she would love watching his Hogs as much as he did.
When Ben told Ella they had only two games left until bowl season, she was excited.
She knew she could continue to fake her interest for at least another few weeks.
That hope died a horrible death the day Ben came home and informed Ella that it was only ten more days until the opening of basketball season.
Evidently, the Hogs also had a great basketball team.
She knew what that meant. So wanting to be able to share something that meant so much to him, Ella began researching Arkansas basketball.
She found she was much more interested in that and actually began to look forward to the opening game.
She did hope that Ben was not going to go all Hogs baseball on her too.
At least she realized she would have several months to get ready for that.
They would not start playing until early spring.
Who knew where she would be and what she would be doing then?
Ben felt a calm peace with Ella. She felt so right wrapped securely in his arms every night.
He had not felt this peace since he was a young boy in New York before his first father died.
Because of his childhood, Ben knew that times of calm peacefulness often did not last, so he was holding on to this time with Ella with both hands while cautiously watching for anything that might blow the little world they were slowly building apart.
During this time, the most shocking part for Ella was that she, Ella Santiago, Good Girl Extraordinaire, was living with a man without the blessing of holy matrimony.
Some days, the guilt about that was almost worse than the boredom that followed her around like a lost puppy all day.
While Ben was in class, Ella took care of the apartment and did a lot of cooking.
Because she continued to suffer from morning sickness, she was grateful not to have to get up and go to work every day.
When she was able, Ella would enjoy a walk along the beach or stroll down to some local Mom and Pop shops.
But as enjoyable as those things were, Ella found herself at war with the Beast of Boredom.
She had never had so much free time in her entire life.
She tried to fill the hours with something productive, but the days crept by so slowly.
There was only so much laundry, shopping, and cooking one could do.
Ella had not grown up watching television and found it mind numbing.
Watching a movie with Ben at the end of the day was one thing, but sitting around all day watching television was exhausting.
Instead, Ella doubled down on her reading.
She had an app on her phone that allowed her to download books from her hometown library.
At the very least, she read a book a day.
Some days, she read two. Most were nonfiction books about soil conservation or ways to make the soil more productive.
She found them fascinating and spent hours making notes.
She would sometimes laugh to herself because she knew that Sophie would say she would be better served reading romance novels if she wanted to learn something useful.
But Ella knew that romance books were no longer needed because in the weeks she had been living with Ben, she had learned pretty much all she needed to know from him.
Although Ella’s days were boring beyond belief, her nights were anything but.
She learned that sometimes it was slow and thoughtful.
Other times it was quick but effective. Their past experience in the hotel had a frantic element to it.
Now the need to hurry no longer existed. They had all the time in the world.
If there was one downside to this time together, it was that no matter how many times Ella called her parents, it just went to voicemail.
She had spoken with Julia, Sophie, and Jorge several times.
It was as if they had been designated as the Ella police and tasked with keeping an eye on her.
Sophie called Ella almost every day and updated her on the family and the diner and encouraged Ella to give her parents time.
Ever optimistic, Sophie was sure eventually everything would work out.
On each call, Sophie would remind Ella that her parents had made it clear that she was welcome back anytime, but only if she left Ben and never had anything to do with him again.
Her parents held Ben completely responsible for corrupting their perfect daughter.
Ella knew that was not true. As much as she wanted to repair the relationship with her parents, she loved Ben. He loved her. She believed that. She was not going to give him up just to make her parents happy. There had to be another way.
Ella also talked to her brother at least once a week. He usually called to check on her and see if she was ready to come home. Jorge ended every call by threatening to come to Malibu and kick Ben’s butt if needed.
While Ella was bummed about the situation with her parents, she had to admit, she loved living with Ben. Never in her wildest dreams had she ever imagined that she would be living with a man and not married to him.
After the fiasco with Ella’s parents, Ben had asked her if she would like to go ahead and get married. He offered to go the Justice of the Peace route or a quickie trip to Vegas.
Even though Ella could not wait to be married to Ben, she could not see herself getting married at a tacky Vegas drive-through wedding chapel.
She had spent her whole life believing that someday she would be married in a full Catholic mass to a very Catholic boy with her whole family in attendance.
The thought of getting married without them was unthinkable.
So instead of agreeing to a quickie wedding, Ella asked Ben for some time to see if things might improve.
Ben did not see how that was going to happen, but he was at a loss to deny her anything.
She had asked that they table wedding talk until after the Thanksgiving holidays, and he agreed.
Thanksgiving had always been a major holiday for Ella’s family.
Her dad was big on everyone making sure to say what they were thankful for.
She could not imagine not being with them for the holiday.
She kept waiting in vain for them to answer her call and tell her all was forgiven and to bring Ben home for the holiday. That call never came.
The second week of November, Ella had last official school assignment, her group project presentation.
Any qualms she had about it were wasted because she nailed it.
It was done over Zoom, and once that was over, Ella was officially finished with her degree.
To celebrate, Ben took Ella out for a fabulous dinner at the Old Place in Malibu.
At first, Ella had been excited about dressing up and going out for a nice dinner.
However, walking into the restaurant, she immediately felt underdressed even in her best Sunday dress and dressy sandals.
The feeling of not belonging was made worse once she got a look at the menu.
Seeing the prices, Ella was taken back. Of course, none of it phased Ben.
He was at home in places like this. Deciding to ignore her own insecurities and focus on the fact that Ben had chosen her, Ella resolved to enjoy her celebration.
In the end, the food was incredible, and they had a great time.
If there was one thing that might have put a damper on the evening it was that once again, Ben brought up her walking at her commencement.
Given the situation with her family, Ella was not sure that was something she wanted to do.
It seemed silly to walk with only Ben there to see it.
If things were different maybe, but as it was, she was not sure it was something she wanted to do.
Ben convinced Ella at least to pay the grad fees and order a cap and gown just in case.
She agreed, though it seemed like a waste of money for something she might not use.
In the end, she paid the fees and made sure everything was in order should she decide to walk.
But that was a decision for another day.
Just like their wedding, Ella resolved not to think about it again until after the Thanksgiving holiday.