“Okay.” Jeremy smiled and nodded his head. “Pick me up at the practice rink tonight around eight, and we can grab a bite once I’m off the ice.”
“It’s a date.”
Later that night, with no camera in his hands as requested, Sergio arrived at the practice rink at seven-thirty instead of eight. Not only was it the first time in his life he’d ever arrived early for a date, but it was also the first time he wasn’t beyond fashionably late.
It was well worth it. Outside of occasionally accompanying Holden to Rose’s events, where Sergio usually scrolled through his phone instead of paying rapt attention, it was the first timein his life he ever really watched the sport of figure skating. The first time he ever really watched another person in an element Sergio didn’t understand.
Jeremy glided across the ice at impossible speeds. He made fast turns and giant jumps where he spun in the air and landed on one blade with ease before turning around and doing it again and again and again, never ceasing. His skin was flushed, more than it had been at the café while flirting heavily with Sergio. It was mesmerizing. Sergio didn’t miss having his camera at his disposal, not even for a second. He was so enthralled with what he watched that he almost missed the way Jeremy winced every time he landed. The way he would hold his breath to adjust his posture. The way he would tug at his eye intermittently between more attempts of his tricks or in lulls of his choreography. He barely saw the look of concern that washed over Jeremy’s coach’s face as he observed his skater. He didn’t know that Jeremy was silently praying to the skating gods every time he stepped on the ice to make it so no one would notice something was wrong.
Holden claps him on the shoulder, breaking Sergio from his thoughts. “Hungry?”
Sergio looks away from Jeremy and Henry and nods. “I can eat.”
“This place has a great turkey burger,” Holden says and leads them all inside, where the hostess awaiting their arrival leads them right to a large table in the middle of the restaurant.
This time, looking for an opportunity to make things less awkward and maybe apologize, Sergio tries to jostle for the seat beside Jeremy at the table. He’s quickly thwarted.
“Here,” Allison says, touching his arm with light fingers and grabbing his attention. “Next to me.”
As he goes to rebuff her request, Jeremy takes the seat next to Rose, then Adrien—likely figuring that Sergio is about to do thepredictable thing for him and indulge in the very pretty face of Allison—slips into the chair on Jeremy’s other side.
Damn it.Sergio lets out a sigh as he takes the only seat left, placing him between Holden and Allison and sitting with a perfect view across the table of Jeremy holding Henry in his lap.
“How long are you in town?” Allison asks him once they’ve placed their orders.
He turns in his chair to look at her. Maybe she simply wants to engage in polite conversation? Maybe she’s tired of seeing and talking to the same people day in and day out while training in Lake Placid? It’s a small town. The monotony has to get to everyone at some point.
“A week.”
“That’s nice,” she says, smiling at him. She leans in like she’s waiting for him to say something else.
He doesn’t. He takes his attention to the rest of the table. His eyes briefly meet Rose, who’s looking at him with tight, pursed lips and a raised eyebrow. Silently, he mouths at her, “I can behave.”
“Prove it,” she silently says back, making it clear she doesn’t believe he’s capable of not indulging in the charms of Allison. She is, after all, quite pretty, but for the first time in Sergio’s life, a pretty face isn’t enough to distract him from his task at hand. Mainly, apologizing to Jeremy and maybe, with some luck, getting a second chance to rekindle an old flame.
Taking his attention away from Rose, he hears Jeremy say, “Oh! She’s in Paris. How nice. I’ve only been there once. Years ago, for a competition, and I didn’t even really get to enjoy it. I got a picture of myself in front of the Eiffel Tower, though. So I guess that’s something.”
“You need to go again,” Adrien says. “In fact, we should plan something. Daphne’s family is always open to having guests. You would only need to purchase a plane ticket.”
Jeremy sighs wistfully. “That’d be lovely. I’ll think about it.”
“Have you ever been to Paris?” Allison asks Sergio, grabbing back his attention.
“I have. Many times. It’s not that great.” He slumps in his seat and crosses his arms over his chest.
“Not that great?” Holden laughs. “Sergio, you love Paris. Remember that time you got so drunk you slept through your room being robbed?”
Sergio groans.
Various forms of, “He what!” are exclaimed by Rose, Jeremy, and Allison.
“Oh, god.” Adrien hangs his head, laughing. “Don’t remind me. What a nightmare.”
Agreed.Sergio wants to sink even lower into his chair. This is very quickly turning into yet another roast at his expense.
Rose grabs her wine and sits back in her chair. “Oh, I’m going to need to hear thisentirestory.”
“It’s not that great of a story,” Sergio says.
