Must Read: Taking Chances… [completed] Season 1

Season 7 years ago

Must Read: Taking Chances… [completed] Season 1

The sun smiled pleasantly at the large spaced and brightly decorated
garden of Queens Hotel which was being used as the reception venue for
the wedding of Jide and Daisy, the atmosphere was cheerful as would a
wedding, and the couples were beautifully dressed in their wedding
apparel, Daisy was looking more beautiful than she had ever Imagined
herself, and Jide, who, though seem to have a frown etched on his face,
did not look any less as they sat in the special table meant for the
bride and groom.
Nobody would ever have imagined that behind all that facade lie two
hearts burning with anger and fear; while anger burned brightly in
Jide’s being, fear of the unknown stationed itself in Daisy’s heart,
they were trying their best to put up appearances for their guests.
Although Jide was struggling with that part.
It was however, all Daisy could do whether she preferred to or not, she
had to make her step-mum see how happy she was and relay the information
to her dad who had sworn never to step foot in her wedding.
Her stepmother was the only family who had come to celebrate with her,
her step-siblings couldn’t care less and it took all the will power she
had to plead with Uncle Tobechi to come give her away in marriage, After
which he left. Her uncle had initially disagreed and termed it a
‘taboo’ for him to give Her away in marriage when her dad was still
alive, but then Dad had vehemently opposed the union, so, expecting him
to give her away was like expecting the moon for breakfasts!

But the wedding had to go on, not even the insanity of it had deterred
her, yes insanity it was, getting married to a man who she hardly knew
and who hardly knew her in this 21st century with all her education and
exposure was madness impersonified!
But as they say, it’s too late to turn back the hands of time. The ”I
do’s” have already being said some hours ago at Love Word Assembly,
they were now man and wife before God and before all these guests
gathered comprising people mainly from Jide’s side – his colleagues at
work, his family, his friends and also friends of his friends. The
number of people who knew Daisy, even slightly were not up to ten and
that had made her feel scared and lost as if on an island, her
stepmother’s presence couldn’t even quell the feeling. It was so bad
that even the bridesmaid who was dabbing away at her face trying to make
her look splendid every now and then was scarcely known to her, she is a
friend of Jide’s sister whom Jide’s Grandmother had chosen because,
according to her, she complemented Daisy just perfectly.
She however braced herself to go through the ordeal she put herself in
for she couldn’t abandon herself. And now, more than ever, she missed
her mum.
‘Its time now for the bride and groom to cut the wedding cake, but
before that, i would like to call on Miss Sarah Adams to come tell us
the make up of this cake and its significance to our lovely couples
here’ the M.C cheerfully announced.


Amidst clapping, the said Sarah Adams walked elegantly to the stage,
collected the Mic and started speaking:
‘well, on behalf of Sarah’s Bridals, i am glad to tell you that…’
But Jide wasn’t listening. He had constantly checked the watch seated on
his left hand and at other times checked the ‘order of programme’ that
was placed on their table. He was checking it again and was visibly
restless.
‘Just Number five?’ he muttered angrily to himself
‘and what is this silly lady yarning on about?’ he added while scanning
the crowd looking for noone in particular. His eyes had continuously
roamed everywhere but on the lovely woman seated by his side, he felt
that the more he forced himself to ignore her, the more he could cope
with the whole nightmare.
‘I need to visit the gents’ he whispered to his friend Ade, seated by
his side, Ade was his best man.
‘come again’ Ade replied while his eyes focused on Sarah Adams and ears
attuned to her speech.
‘Men fu.c.k this! I need to visit the gents’ jide cursed silently, making a move to stand up.
Immediately, his friend held him back.
‘what’s the problem with you man?’ Ade asked now shifting attention to him
‘i wanna ease myself’ he muttered under his breath
‘no way that happening cos its time to go cut the cake made with honey, love and bliss’ he replied sarcastically, and joined in the clapping by the audience.
‘You have my permission to cut it, that’s why you are my best man’ Jide said standing up. Just then Daisy stood up, her countenance cheerful though she had heard the last part of their discussion. In between Miss Sarah’s speech, Daisy had wished that the honey professed by Sarah as a significance of sugar to their marriage, would really sweeten the life that lay ahead of her, even more, sweeten the attitude of Jide here, even for an hour.
‘well, that’s why we also have the groom’ Ade replied him later as they were walking to the stage.


The rest of the ceremony dragged on slowly, Jide’s anger increased with each activities they observed that was stipulated on the program menu. When it was time to feed eachother the cake, Jide almost stuffed Daisy
with the cake, that act had given
him pleasure.
‘serves her right’ he thought to himself.
Daisy had however tenderly given him his part of the cake, but inside
she was burning with anger, Jide was really acting s.tu.pid and
childish, she thought, he didn’t have to be so wicked trying to choke her with the cake, so she would cough out her pitiable self infront of all these people. Well, she wouldn’t retaliate because there was no telling what lay in the sleeves of this husband of hers, and so she carried on the facade of the happiest bride on her happiest day. How
hard it was!
Also, during the couple dance, No matter how ostentatious Daisy had tried to be, it was obvious that the rift between them was far from friendly much less conjugal, those who had an inkling that somethings
were wrong with this couple could really rest their case.
Because Jide had been miles apart from Daisy and seemed to be dancing with one of the female guests who had come to dance with them, even the M.C observed that and chipped in:
‘It seems our groom here can’t tell the difference between a lady on
white and one on red’
But jide was far from caring, if they wanted a dance, he reasoned, then
dance he must give them, no matter who was on the receiving end. He so
hated his wedding and loved every opportunity he could get to create a
scene, that would atleast teach his manipulative family spearheaded by
his grandmother to stop meddling with the affairs of a grown man, he had
had his misgivings about working in the family company, which meant he
had to see the face of his over bearing father and annoying brother
almost on a daily basis, an interaction which had finally led him to
this sham of a union.

And although it was too late to turn back the hands of time, it wasn’t
too late to create a media scandal that would get through the thick skin
of his family. This dance was therefore, short of the expectations of
what lay ahead for them and their docile pet, Daisy.
The wedding finally ended at about 6pm, Jide, to the chagrin of everyone
wasn’t available to give a ‘vote of thanks’, it was said by his father,
he had left halfway during the presentation of gifts and his space was
filled by Ade, that act had almost brought Daisy to tears, it took words
of encouragement from Ade to calm her, he had said:
‘Daisy don’t work yourself up unnecessarily, Jide can be impulsive
atimes, but he’s a wonderful guy most times’
‘yeah right’ Daisy had snorted in reply.

The other reason why she was smiling was because she was receiving gifts
from the guests, gifts that seem to go on forever. The Olukoyas had
friends who were very generous, she hoped she would soon get mixed in
their world.
‘Well, this is enough to compensate all my loss right now’ she thought,
calming herself.
But at about 7pm, Jide still had not shown up, his number wasn’t
connecting and nobody could say for sure where he went.
‘this is an exclusive case oh’, it has always been the bride who gets
missing before or after the wedding not the groom, this definitely is a
shockker’ Ade had replied dryly to Jide’s father when he had asked him
of Jide’s whereabouts.
‘That’s how stupid and childish Jide is, let me just set my eyes on him,
he will surely have a piece of me’ his father had replied angrily and
stormed off to go quiz more of his friends.

Ade had just shook his head, and walked towards the exit door, he was
already tired of Jide’s attitude and the drama of the whole evening,
‘whatever happened to pretending’ he said to himself.
Daisy on her part had calmly gone to one of the rooms they rented in
Queens hotel to m0an her situation, she just wanted to be far from
everybody. Although she did not expect the wedding to be so rosy, she
hadn’t imagined it would be this bad, she was starting to regret
everything now.

She wondered when her tears would break forth, she was showing so much strength and calmness than she ever knew she had.
‘You never know how strong you are until you have to be strong’ she said quietly to herself as she slowly lay on the bed she had been sitting on.
Just then she heard a knock, she didn’t feel like seeing anybody.
‘Why wont they leave me alone for once’ she cried silently without making a move to see who had knocked.



The door opened and in came Jide’s grandmother
‘Daisy Omo mi’ she said going to seat by her on the bed
‘Am really sorry for all that happened today, Jide was so…’
‘Mama its ok, there’s no need to feel sorry’ cut in Daisy then she sq££zed herself more, her wedding gown protested the act.
‘Only God knows all the pain you’re going through now, noone envisioned that it would turn out this way, on behalf of the family, i must take the…’