CHAPTER ONE “CONVINCED”

©️ Opeyemi Akintunde
As inspired by the DEEP ONE

Not My Spec!!!

You see this story you are about to read is not your usual love story.
In fact, it is two stories webbed into one… the story of two women and two men.

But let me start with mine.

My name is IMADE, and honestly, Teju Adejumo was not my spec in any way!
Teju was not my dream man.
He was too tall… too slim… too everywhere.

Most girls dreamt of ending up with guys like Teju, but I have always been different from the crowd. I loved my men average height.
I didn’t want to be bending my neck backwards and looking up to the hills before kissing my own husband or even having a simple conversation.

Teju was too jovial… too kind… too soft ; a complete opposite of the “manly man” I had watched in movies and read in novels.

I wanted a guy who could keep a straight face, walk tall and proud.

But Teju?
Ah! Teju was everyone’s friend, shining his big white teeth like he was the global ambassador of a toothpaste company.

And unfortunately for me, even though he wasn’t my spec, he was my parents’ choice… since I was BORN.
Yes! I was literally betrothed to Teju from birth.

Let me give you the backstory! Our parents were best friends right from secondary school. It started with four teenage friends who later became two couples in university. Their bond became concrete when they built a business together after graduation.

According to my mother, our betrothal was “assurance”… a way to keep both families united forever.

So whether I liked it or not…
It was Teju.

We got married… and Teju knew it was never love from my side.
I told him even during our dating days.
He would always smile and say:

“You will grow to love me once you know me better as husband and wife.”

Know him better?
What was left to know?

We practically grew up in the same house. Our Parents always rented their apartments close to each other and When they could afford to build their houses they built a twin duplex!
We spent holidays together, travelled for family vacations together, attended the same schools, the same church …. I had no life outside Teju.

I had no dating experience outside Teju.

I remember the day my sister mistakenly told my mum that I was crushing on a classmate.
I received the lecture of my life.

My mother sat me down and preached:

“Love does not assure a good life.
Marriage is intentionality.
Your father and I , and the Adejumos were friends, but friendship wasn’t feeding us!
We were poor.
Four of Us , Putting our wisdom and small money together was what built our future.”

I had heard that motivational speech a thousand times since I could spell ABC.

After that day, I kept my crushes in my mind.
I had imaginary boyfriends.
Imaginary relationships.
Imaginary love.

But You know life?
Life doesn’t run on imagination.

Immediately after NYSC, my mother … the “chief planner” among the four business partners fixed our wedding date. No consultation. No discussion. Just “Prepare, your wedding is in six months.”

Our wedding was a festival.
Everybody smiling.
Dancing.
Celebrating.

Except me.

Teju was all smiles like the perfect groom.
I smiled only when the photographer forced me to.

And then…
As if to add pepper to my wound…
My longest-standing crush walked in with my younger sister, Derin at our reception.

She introduced him as her boyfriend… the one she had been keeping under wraps.

I froze.
How could Derin be free to choose her own man, while I was being forced to marry someone I couldn’t stand?

“Are you okay?” Teju asked when he saw tears in my eyes.

He knew they were not tears of joy.
We knew each other too well.

“I’m not living,” I whispered. “I’m acting in a movie my mother is directing.
Teju… can we not get married? I don’t love you”

But I knew it was too late.
We were already married.

“Imade,” he whispered back during the reception, “I asked you last night if you still wanted to go on with the wedding and you said yes. Why didn’t you tell me this? I would have travelled out of town and taken the blame as the runaway groom. You told me you had thought over it and you were cool ”

“You asked me after my mother’s one-hour lecture on how I shouldn’t be ungrateful,” I muttered, wiping my face. I saw my mother staring at me with those same eyes that spoke louder than words. I could literally hear her say…” Wipe your face …don’t be ungrateful”

Teju followed my eyes and saw where it was fixed.! He turned my face to him and said while locking his gaze with mine…

“Imade… I promise to make you happy. Just open your heart to the possibility.”

“You wish,” I whispered under my breath.

To be continued…

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