Sergio, wearing the self-satisfied grin of a man who feels like he accomplished a good deed, leaves his bedroom and heads down the stairs. Having done something altruistic—no matter how minor—he’s ready to take on this repeated day with a new attitude.
“Good morning, shithead!” he says in chorus with Holden as he enters the kitchen, trips over Gus, recovers, and makes a swift move to grab the flatware from Rose to lie across the table. Unlike his failure to avoid tripping over Gus, he does manage to deftly dodge the whip of Rose’s ponytail by leaning back. After finishing setting the table, he grabs the coffee and begins filling up the mugs, starting with a cup for Rose.
She raises a suspicious eyebrow at him as he hands her the steaming cup.
“What? Did you expect me to only pour coffee for myself?” he asks as he fills a second mug and holds it out to Adrien as he enters the kitchen with Henry hanging from his shoulders.
“I suspect that’s exactly what she thought,” Adrien says as he takes the mug after placing Henry back onto his feet.
“You all have such little faith in me.” Sergio shakes his head. He has a smile on his lips and thinks,See? This isn’t so hard.
“I have faith in you,” Holden says, and places the plates full of pancakes, bacon, and sliced fruit onto the table. He even refuses the mug of coffee Sergio is holding out for him. “You take that. I’ll drink the sludge at the bottom of the pot.”
“Seriously?” Sergio, Rose, and Adrien all ask together.
“Yeah. I like it when I can chew it,” Holden says, pouring himself the last remnants of the coffee. He takes an exaggerated sip from his mug and smacks his lips after he swallows. “Ahh. Delicious.”
“You’re disgusting,” Rose and Adrien say together as everyone begins to grab food.
“So,” Sergio says, dishing up his plate and looking toward Rose. “Jeremy. What’s his day look like?”
She barely looks at him while she pours syrup over Henry’s pancakes. “Why? Are you looking to insult him again?”
Sergio feels his cheeks get slightly hot. “No. I was …” He pauses, and his shoulders creep up towards his ears. “Hoping to apologize, actually.”
“Really?” she says. “I’ve never known you to ever say you’re sorry.”
“You and me both,” Adrien says, with a tight laugh.
Sergio snaps his head to look at his brother. He takes a quick breath before retorting. Saying something snarky at his moment isn’t going to keep his brother from quitting on him later. “Don’t worry,” he says. “I’ll be saying I’m sorry to you later.”
“Doubt it,” Adrien says and takes a long sip of his coffee.
One person at a time.Sergio lets out a small, quick sigh. He turns his attention back to Rose. “Really, though. Should I go talk to him before or after skiing?”
Rose shrugs. “After, I guess. Allison is gonna be at the barn any minute now, and we need to get right to work with no distractions.” She takes a bite of her food and then washes it down with coffee. “Which, speaking of, I better get going.”
“You didn’t finish your breakfast,” Holden says, looking rejected as if there’s something wrong with his spread.
She rises from her seat and grabs her plate, then kisses him on the cheek. “I’ll take the rest of it to go. You boys have fun. And maybe while you’re on the mountain, you can feed this idiot”—she ruffles Sergio’s hair with her free hand as she walks by— “a proper script on how to apologize to someone.”
In the chair lift high above the snow-covered mountain, with their legs and skis dangling in the air, Adrien teases Sergio. “Do we need to talk about what you’re gonna say to Jeremy today to apologize to him? Or are you going to act like a grown-up on your own? We could pull a Cyrano De Bergerac if you need?”
“Nah.” Sergio laughs, enjoying the lightness between himself and his brother. “I think I can manage.”
“I don’t know,” Adrien says with a slight sing-song nature to his voice. “Have you ever actually apologized to anyone?”
Sergio scoffs. “Yes.” He has. Sort of. It’s arguable if he’s ever really done it without the ulterior motive of aiming to get his way, though.
“Well, a word of advice. Don’t make it about you.”
“I would never.”
“You would always.” Adrien playfully jostles him with his shoulder, making their airborne chariot sway back and forth.
Sergio turns to look at his brother and gives him a quick wink.Keep it light and playful,he reminds himself. Every other time the two brothers have been on this lift, Adrien has quit on him when he hasn’t managed to keep the mood fun. With his brother in a seemingly good and lighthearted mood, Sergio is feeling amiable.
“So, I’ve been thinking,” he begins, jostling Adrien back with his shoulder and creating more sway back and forth on the chairlift.
