Game Theory × NH

good luck kiss

Lynn

The first few months of dating Niall had been eventfully blissful and equally as challenging. Blissful because career, health, mentality, and relationship wise, this was where we wanted to be. It was challenging, however, because I had to stay away from Niall out in public the best I could.

The media knew Niall jumped ship right before he was going to get married, and even though they didn't know why he bailed, they hopped on the opportunity to start rumors. One of those rumors was that he had gotten back together with the one and only Lynn Mercury. Seeing as people would believe what the media has to say, that had a nasty backlash on us. As much as people loved the two of us together back in college, having it be the reason Niall left the poor bride-to-be on the aisle was not going to fly with them.

So that was why I was staying on the down low. It was easy in the sense that I had good excuses. Like why was I living in Dublin? Well, I had a job in the city so naturally I'm going to live there. However, it was hard because I was madly in love with Niall and having to keep that contained in private places was growing to be very difficult.

Why was it that we were finally together after being apart for so long, and we still had to meet secretively? As Niall keeps reminding me: nothing has changed.

I can't go to soccer events with him, he can't visit me at work when I'm having a shitty day, and we can't even go out on a date. No one knows the two of us are together except for our friends and family. Not my co-workers, not his teammates... no one. And I wanted nothing more than to scream it to the world.

We've officially been together for three months and the time to let the world know that the two us were happily taken by each other was going to finally come out because for the first time since moving to Dublin, I was going to one of Niall's games.

But before I could do that, Niall was making me meet the team.

"Why are you so nervous, love?" Niall asked as I stood in front of the full length mirror in the corner of the bed room, changing my outfit for the tenth time. "It's just my teammates, no need to impress them."

I looked at him through the mirror with creased brows. "No need to impress them?" I nearly shrieked. "Niall, did you forget how the media portrayed us when we were in college? No one is going to take me seriously there."

"I think you're putting too much thought into this," Niall noted as he stood up from the edge of the bed. "It's a completely different atmosphere here than in college football. They don't even bat an eye at stuff like that." He walked up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. "Besides, that was six years ago."

"Exactly, it was six years ago," I agreed. "So you'd think people would have gotten over the two of us. And yet... here we are, still very much in the media."

Niall sighed and leaned his forehead down on my shoulder, his thick, brunette hair tickling my neck and cheek. "Regardless, Coach and my teammates haven't said anything about it to me," he explained, his lips brushing against my bare shoulder. "So either they don't see it or they don't care."

I reached up and ran a hand down his face, the stubble on his jaw rough against my palm. "I just don't want to embarrass you."

A chuckle left Niall's mouth as he looked up in the mirror at me. "Trust me love, if you embarrass me, it's not going to be because of what the media has to say. You're capable of that all on your own."

"Shut the hell up," I scoffed and pushed his face away from me, which only made him laugh harder.

He grabbed my hand and pulled me to his chest, his other hand coming up to run through my hair. "You can wear a skirt and a pretty blouse if you want, but don't do it to impress them. Being yourself is going to leave a good impression all on its own. No need to stress," he said, searching my eyes. "And whatever they do end up thinking about you, it's not going to matter because I'm going to love you either way."