Perfidia

the in-laws

Sergio put some sugar in his tea and silently started stirring it. He avoided to look at the woman sitting in front of him by the table.

"All right, I'll go to the town to get our refund and sign those papers." his brother broke the silence when he finished his coffee and kissed Alicia, a bit too passionately for Sergio's liking, considering that he was there.

"Wait, I can go with you." Alicia turned after him as he grabbed his coat.

"Nah, I'll be back soon. At least you two can get to know each other while I'm away." he smirked at his brother. "Hopefully you find topics too to talk about, not just me." he put his hat on his head with a still amused smile and left the house.

Alicia looked at the boy sitting in front of him with a searching gaze and a pout on her face. She found it odd that she still thought about him as if he'd be a little boy. It was probably because Andrés always talked about him as his little brother, but she forgot the fact that even if Sergio was almost ten years younger than his brother, he was not much younger than her at all.

They picked him up the day before, during the afternoon, and since then he seemed to be avoiding her. It was not exactly the behavior Alicia expected from him.

"I thought you are more talkative." she broke the persisting silence as she grabbed a coffee biscuit and bit into it.

The boy finally looked at her and pushed his glasses up on his nose. "Why?"

Alicia shrugged. "I heard you are witty. I thought witty people are chatty."

Sergio remained silent. "You might have gotten the wrong impression." he said eventually.

Alicia hesitated for a moment. Well... I am chatty." she said, but not getting any reaction, she changed to a more serious tone. "Wow... You are serious, buddy... Or do you just find me intimidating?" she placed her elbows on the table.

Sergio swallowed and awkwardly rolled his eyes. "Actually... Yes, I do! A bit..."

"Seriously?" Alicia laughed as she straightened her back again. "Why?"

Sergio absent-mindedly moved around the salt and the pepper holders so that they were simmetrical with each other then he nervously took a sip from his tea.

"On a scale from 1 to 10 how much do you hate me?" he asked eventually, instead of answering.

"Why would I hate you?" Alicia frowned, being amused.

"I am the reason your honeymoon was cancelled." he said pragmatically.

Alicia just smiled playing with her coffee cup. When she raised her glance to look at him, their eyes met, and Sergio kept looking at her questioningly. This was the first time that he held her gaze. "So? How much?" he insisted.

Sergio was genuinely feeling uneasy about him being the reason that their plans got cancelled, and he was prepared for the woman he saw smoking in front of the hospital, in business attire, with a rather arrogant, almost inimical look on her face to be in a way or another mad at him. But now there was a somewhat messy haired woman, in one of his brother's long shirts sipping coffee in front of him.

And she was smiling. "Hmm... You are really self-conscious, I actually like that."

Sergio slightly blushed after her last words, and looked away from her. Why the hell did I blush now?

"It's okay." Alicia still smiled.

"What?" Sergio looked back at her slightly confused.

"It doesn't matter where we spend these weeks." she shrugged. "We can go somewhere sometime later. Relax... If you are avoiding me because you think that I am mad at you, I am not. I am actually impressed by how much Andres cares about you." she added pensively. "To be honest I thought he's more selfish. It makes me admire him more."