Game Theory × NH

reception | part 2

To her surprise, Lynn's heart fell. She too had her differences with Niall's mom, but she had hoped, for the sake of her son, that she would have stayed and see him be happy. But sometimes her hope runs thin and she's only left disappointed. And when she looked at Niall, she could tell that he preferred it this way.

"Well..." Lynn started, a bright smile on her lips. "More booze for the rest of us!"

Bobby cheered to that and Niall and Lynn moved onto the other guests. As they were talking to Niall's coach and his wife, Lynn spotted two people entering the backyard, looking around and probably feeling out of place.

She grabbed his arm and pointed at the couple. When he saw who it was, he excused himself from his coach and the two of them started heading toward the edge of the yard.

"Glad you made it!" Niall expressed cheerfully.

Elise Bouvier's face instantly lit up when she saw the familiar faces. Niall was quick to give her a hug and shook the man's hand who stood beside her in greeting.

"We weren't so sure we were going to make it," Elise explained after hugging Lynn. "It was our intention to be here for the ceremony but our flight was delayed. So we're sorry we missed it."

"Don't be," Lynn responded. "This is the best part of the celebration, anyways. Free booze, free food, and an unlimited amount of people who will surly embarrass themselves on the dance floor after the clock hits ten."

The four of them talked amongst themselves until Lynn and Elise's date broke off into their own conversation. Something about histograms and bokehs, Niall wasn't sure.

Elise reached out and squeezed his arm. "Congrats on the marriage, Niall. I'm happy for you. You seem really happy where you ended up."

"I was happy with you, too, Elise."

She gave him a sad smile. "I don't doubt that, I was happy too. How long would that have lasted?" she questioned. "I'm not sorry about what happened. I wouldn't want to be three years into our marriage and start resenting you or something. It just might have been nice for you to figure it out before we spent all that time and money on the wedding."

Niall laughed at that. It was unfortunate on the timing of the realization, but she had a point. Better late then too late.

"You seem happy, too," Niall said, changing the topic and glancing at the man Lynn was talking to. "I've only talked to Daniel twice, but from those conversations, he seems like a nice lad. It doesn't surprise me that you too hit it off."

Elise looked at Daniel with fond in her eyes. He was rather tall, no less then three inches on Niall. His dark hair was cut short and he had quite the muscle mass on him. "Yeah, he's great," she explained. "We're taking it slow right now, but so far things are going in the right direction."

"He's not giving you a hard time, is he?" Niall asked, a glint in his blue eyes. "Because I have no problem putting him in his place."

She busted out laughing at that, the mental image in her mind making it too much for her to control the humor. "As much as I'd love to see that, I really don't want you to break out into a fight at your own wedding."

"You're probably right," Niall agreed with a laugh.

Lynn told them they can help themselves to the left over food from dinner that is now located in the kitchen and to enjoy themselves before she and Niall continued their rounds. About a half hour later, Jamie came up to them, clapping her hands together in front of her with a wide, excited smile.

"It's time to cut the cake!" she said eagerly and practically skipped away to get everything she needed.

Niall grabbed Lynn's hand and started leading her toward the small table where the four tier cake was set up near he dance floor. Jamie took the microphone from the DJ and announced that it was time to cut the cake and gestured where the two newlyweds now stood.