"Oh, thank God!" Jess Nicks sighed a little too loudly and received a slap on his arm from his wife. "What?"
"You know, this won't end well." Barbara leaned in to whisper, then shifted her gaze over to her daughter, who stood staring at the intruder.
On the other side of the aisle, Christine frowned at Mick. "I thought, he wasn't coming."
"Well, that's what he said." Mick nodded, both surprised and relieved. "He swore, he doesn't care anymore."
The officiant cleared his throat loudly to capture the bride and groom's attention. "Shall we continue?"
"Yes, I'm so sorry." Stevie apologized. She didn't quite expect that to happen.
"You can't continue!" Lindsey spoke up again, everyone's eyes still on him. "Fucking hell, Stevie." He breathed out heavily, shaking his head. "This is a fucking farce!" He caught a glimpse of the officiant's expression and thought of apologizing, but that wasn't important right now. "Why are you doing this?"
"Lindsey, get out of here." Stevie turned to walk towards him. "You got your invitation, you didn't show up like everybody else did. Now, you're no longer welcome here."
"Oh, I'm sorry for trying to save you from yourself again!" Lindsey shouted, throwing his arms up in the air in anger. "I shouldn't be here, I promised myself I wasn't going to come here, but I can't let you do this."
She was boiling mad inside, but Stevie did her best not to show it. She approached Lindsey, aware that everybody was watching them. "You're embarrassing me, that's what you're doing."
"So be it." He shrugged. "This is pretty damn humiliating for me, too, but I just cannot let you go through with this bullshit."
"What, have you suddenly realized you're still madly in love with me?"
"You love throwing that in my face, don't you?" Lindsey laughed without any humor in his voice. "I don't want you to make yet another massive mistake."
"I'm not-"
"Yes, you are." He cut her off. "You think, what you're doing is right, but it's not. You don't love Kim and he doesn't love you. You both lost someone extremely important to you, someone you both loved dearly. You're heartbroken, you're grief stricken. You're trying to find comfort in each other and that's okay, but it's not the way to do it."
Glancing around herself at the guests, Stevie wished for the ground to open up and swallow her whole. "Go inside."
Lindsey wasn't sure, what that meant. Was she ordering him to leave on his own or was she going to follow? When he took the first step, she followed.
"How do you suggest I go back out there? How do I go through with it now?" Stevie asked, folding her arms over her chest. "It's become a joke!"
"It's been a joke from the beginning! Stevie, that's the thing, you're not supposed to go back out there. Don't you get that this won't end well? This is not your happy ending." Lindsey thought if he softened up her reaction wouldn't be so hostile. "This is not what you want no matter what you're telling yourself or everyone else." They spent a moment just staring at each other. At least they were no longer yelling, Lindsey took that as a good sign. "I'm not doing this in hopes that something's gonna happen between us. I'm not doing this for me. I'm doing this for you. Just say the word and I'll get you out of here." He offered and looked at her almost pleadingly.
Meanwhile, outside the guests had all started whispering among themselves. No one knew, what was going on inside the house, if Stevie was going to come back out. They felt for Kim, who stood alone, awkwardly looking around. He didn't seem too heartbroken that the ceremony got interrupted, but it was still not something people had wished for him.
"I'm going to check on them." Barbara rose from her seat. Jess wanted to ask her to stay, but she rushed away from him before he could.
Walking through the backdoor, Barbara found the house to be quiet. She walked around the first floor, then went up the stairs and didn't find Stevie and Lindsey anywhere she'd checked. With a heavy exhale, Barbara returned and approached Kim, an apologetic look on her face.
