Tseju's Bayo

Epilogue - Tseju's Bayo

The gown was so full and so long that if you were seated at the front of the church watching the bride make her way to the groom, you would think she was floating down the aisle, not walking down it.

The whole church stood still, smiles traveling across the faces of all who stood facing sideways in honour of the bride as their eyes followed the duo gliding down the aisle. You would assume that they were all smiling because they loved the bride so much, they were happy to see her hitched, but that was only partially the case. 302 eyes sat over 152 wide smiles because for the first time in their lives, they watched a woman walk her daughter down the aisle on her big day.

As they reached the pulpit, Mrs Mobijilade stopped at the bottom of the podium and flashed a happy smile at her son-in-law as Tseju climbed up the stairs to take her place opposite him. They were both flanked by bridesmaids in Pepper Red mermaid gowns to the left and groomsmen in Navy Blue three piece suits to the right.

The white noise in the church hall reduced greatly. It was time for the vows and everyone looked at the couple with some level of disinterest borne out of cynicism as they waited to hear them exchange flowery words that they would probably only adhere to for the first three or four years of their marriage.

Bayo beamed a beautiful smile at his about to be wife and turned to walk off the podium, towards his future mother in law. 302 eyes followed his walk from the podium to where she sat in the front row. When he reached her, he stopped and took her right palm in his, bringing her to her feet.

"Thank you so much for bringing this beautiful woman to this world. Thank you so much for raising her to be this person that she is today, this powerful selfless beautiful woman that i have come to love with everything in me. I cannot promise you that I won't cause your daughter pain because I know I am not perfect, but I promise you, i will give her more reasons to smile and be happy than to be sad. I promise to love her the way I watched my father love my mother. I promise you this before God and his people."

The church broke into an applause. First the mother of the bride walked her down the aisle and now, the groom said his vows to his mother in law and not the bride. This was definitely not your average Nigerian couple.

Mrs Mobijilade smiled. She already knew that Bayo would take good care of her daughter. She'd watched him do that over and over again for the past 3 and a half years. She had no doubt he'd be able to do it for another 50 years. Her daughter was in good hands with the Ayodeji Jacobs. She looked at her son in law in the eyes before hugging him and she blessed the union.

Tseju felt a deep respect wash over her as she watched her perfect groom stroll back to the podium. God! She thought, na my mama prayer do this one so!

The church hall was quiet again. They were now very interested in hearing what the bride would say to her groom.

"You're not exactly what i would have gone for in a man," Low laughter reverberated through the church hall as Tseju began her vows, "I usually go for muscular types, but look at you. No singu musku at allllll!!! And your head?? What am i supposed to run my fingers through? You need to grow it back oh. Is it some kind of condition?" She gasped dramatically, a sly smile on her face. "Can you never have hair?"

"Um babe," Bayo suppressed a laugh and gave her a pointed look, "You're supposed to be giving your wedding vows."

"Eh now. I am," Tseju answered. "We're supposed to be 100 percent honest, so honesty is what you're getting." She turned to the resident pastor, "Sir. Please can you tell my almost husband to allow me finish giving my vows so i can gaon eat my wedding jollof?"

"You heard the girl. Let her talk" The pastor smiled and winked at the bride.

"Ehen.... Where was i? Right. No hair, no musku. At least you're tall sha... and you have money."

Bayo cleared his throat. Mako was already sniggering behind Bello. Ada and Tessy pressed their lips together to prevent the laughter from escaping. Tseju was mad abeg! And she'd brought her madness to her wedding.

Tseju winked at Bayo before continuing. "But all these things are physical and usually fragile. I mean even if have all the musku in the world, you can still get very fat and shapeless yea? Hair comes and goes." She gave a small laugh. "Heh. I'm a little nervous. Is it showing?"

Bayo smiled and nodded. God he loved this woman!

"What I'm trying to say is, you're not what i thought i wanted, but turns out you're physically and emotionally what i needed." She reached out and took his hands in hers. "Hugging hard musku is not half as rewarding or as satisfying as hugging all this flesh. Your dimples will be the death of me. I can get mad at you, but never at those dimples of mine you're housing on your face."

She took a deep breath and stepped closer to him, her eyes shining because of unshed tears pooling in them. "I thank God everyday for the gift of Bayo. You're literally one of the best things that has ever happened to me. You, my love, you are by far the kindest person I know. You are sweet, caring, protective, patient and understanding. Those last two traits, matter of fact, all these things that make you who you are, i think is what even facilitated our getting here, to this point where I'm standing before the people who mean the most to me and making a commitment that for better and for worse, in sickness and in health, for richer for poorer, hair or no hair, musku or no musku, till we're both sporting grey hair and matching rocking chairs, till death do us part i will forever be yours. I love you."

"And i, you. Till death do us part. For richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, I will always be yours. I will always be Tseju's Bayo."

_______

I cannot believe that it is time to say goodbye to this book 🥺🥺😩😩

I'm totally grateful for happy endings because they give way to new beginnings, so y'all watch out for Taming Femi ⛹🏽‍♀️⛹🏽‍♀️⛹🏽‍♀️

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO HAS BEEN WITH ME THUS FAR!!! TO EVERYONE WHO HAS BEEN READING SINCCCEE DAY ONE!!! ALL MY DAY ONE NIGGAS ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ all those who joined in along the way, MUCH LOVE TO YOU TOOOOO ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

I have the most amazing reader community ever, thank you for all the comments, criticism included. You have helped me tell the story better and i will forever be grateful ❤️❤️❤️

Soooooo, let the questions, comments and observations start rolling innnnnnn⛹🏽‍♀️⛹🏽‍♀️⛹🏽‍♀️⛹🏽‍♀️ we this whole week for submissions and collation and then I'll answer at the end of the week, reason being i wanna give all my focus and attention to Taming Femi, so bring them in guyysss🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾

Thanks _plehthora for the deep questions 😂 ❤️❤️ really excited to answer them🙌🏾🙌🏾

Also, i see Tseju's Bayo trending!!!!! 24k READS OSHE!!!!!!!!! ARE YOU GUYS NOT THE BEST READERS EVER THO!!!!!!!!! KEEP IT UP GUYS!!! Keep Voting, Commenting and Sharing, 100k reads is right in front of us.