八字万年历

Chapter 349: Best on the National Team?

‘Is there even a point in all this?’

‘Does she like someone else?’

‘Am I just wasting my time trying to explore this whole relationship thing?’

‘Am I…’

All sorts of thoughts began to appear but the words of the priest officiating the wedding threw Jason out of his errant thoughts.

“You may now kiss the bride,” the priest said as the couple finished saying their vows and their “I dos”.

Teni and her ‘husband’ kissed each other on the stage and the church immediately filled up with applause.

The applause threw all Jason’s thoughts to the side and he fully refocused on the wedding instead of spending his time thinking of depressing thoughts.

After the couple’s kiss, the rest of the wedding service did not take much time to be over with and the couple soon signed their marriage documents, and the wedding was officially accepted by the law.

Not long after, the wedding was over and the people started leaving the church to move to the event center where the wedding reception would take place.

Jason had to stay behind to take a few pictures with the couple and it was there he was finally introduced to the newest groom in the city.

“I’m Jason, this beautiful lady’s cousin,” Jason said as he held out a hand for a handshake to the guy.

“My name should be on all the posters, but I’m Tayo by name,” the guy said to Jason with a cheeky grin with a glance at a huge poster with his and Teni’s pictures and names on it, causing Jason to immediately like this fellow.

“Also, you look kind of familiar… but I don’t think we’ve met before because I’d definitely remember you if we did,” Tayo continued while taking Jason’s hand.

“What do you mean by you’d definitely remember if we’ve met before?” Jason asked, intrigued.

“Well, I haven’t left Nigeria before, so someone like you with that kind of accent would stick in my head, you know,” Tayo said with a laugh while glancing over at the people taking pictures with his wife.

“… Good point, but then I don’t think I have a face that people would easily forget,” Jason replied with a confident laugh.

“Haha, maybe. You could take off your glasses first before saying that though,”

“Hey, do you live in Lagos, maybe we should hang out sometime, we could play FIFA or we could play football, I’m a pretty good defender,” Tayo spoke in a jovial tone.

“Playing FIFA… or even worse, football against me may be a bit out of your league my guy,” Jason said with a laugh as he pulled off his glasses.

“…As I live and breathe… you’re him!” Tayo’s mouth flew open as he saw Jason’s face revealed as he took his glasses off.

The sapphire blue eyes gazing at him with amusement gave everything away.

“Him?… people don’t usually describe me like that, but it sounds nice for a change,” Jason laughed at Tayo’s surprised look.

“Teni! How could you do this to me?” Tayo immediately turned to his wife on the side.

“What did I do?” Teni asked her husband in confusion.

“You did not tell me your cousin was Nigeria’s best footballer,” Tayo immediately shot back.

“I didn’t even know that one until today either,” Teni immediately put up her defense.

“Hey, best footballer is a bit-” Jason began saying in a bit of surprise while internally amused by the couple’s antics.

“Who else in that team has scored a scissors kick goal since the team was established?” Tayo immediately interrupted Jason.

“I don’t know much about that…but I think I’m the only one so far,” Jason answered after a bit of thought.

“Then you’re the best on the team,” Tayo immediately said like it was a matter of fact.

“I don’t think that’s how it works though,” Jason started speaking again, doing his best to stop himself from laughing at his guy’s sudden claim of him being the best player.

“Okay, who in that team can play better free kicks than you?” Tayo suddenly launched another question at Jason determined to prove his earlier point.

“… I’ve scored only two free kicks in my career bro,” Jason half laughed as he replied.

“And no one else on that team has scored even one, so you’re the best in set pieces,”

“Now, who else on that team can run as fast as you can?” Tayo continued his questioning.

“… Probably the captain, but he can no longer run as fast as he could in his prime, otherwise I wouldn’t be his match,” Jason had decided to humor this guy and answered the questions he was asked as best as he could.

“So you’re just about the best when it comes to pace,”

“Can anyone among our defenders even guard you?” Tayo continued his research.

“Nah, I take their knees every day,” Jason answered confidently.

Of course, he was exaggerating a bit, but it was true that he could easily get past the defenders when they were in a good mood and weren’t looking to end his football career with a devious tackle.

“Then what else bruh?”

“Osimen is probably the only one better than you in the aspect of pure goalscoring, otherwise, you’re the best thing that has ever happened to our team… and the best part is, you’re still eighteen,”

“Bruh, you’re even the most handsome one on the team,” Tayo laughed as he put forth his conjecture after a minute of questioning.

His argument was so convincing that the people around him who stayed behind to take pictures and had begun looking over when Jason took off his glasses began nodding their heads.

“I agree with my son-in-law, that boy has always had sense,” Femi Badmus who was nearby said while nodding his head which caused some people to look over at him in disbelief.

“Excuse me sir? Wasn’t it you that almost chased him away with a cutlass when he said he wanted to marry your daughter?” Jola asked with a raised eyebrow as if she couldn’t believe her ears.

“You even went to buy dogs when he used to visit us back then because you wanted them to chase him away whenever he came to visit,” she continued, laying bare past events with every word that came out of her mouth.

“You even said, and I quote “Unless all the men on this earth finish, I will not let this boy with extra beef added from heaven to marry my daughter. If I do, my enemies will laugh at me.”,”

“If not because they begged you for days, you wouldn’t have let them get married peacefully,” Jola couldn’t believe her husband.

“Leave that one, that was in the past. Back then, the only thing he used to watch was K-drama, but see him now. After a few years under my tutelage, he has seen the light,” Femi Badmus defended his honor immediately from his wife who was trying to stain his impeccable white.

“…” Jola couldn’t even respond and just had her mouth drop wide.

***Back to Jason and Tayo…

Jason opened his mouth to argue, but the words wouldn’t come out as he realized that there was truth to what his cousin’s husband was saying.

“… You make a good point, but I wouldn’t dare to take that title yet, I’ve only played one game with the National broskis,” Jason said with a laugh after a few seconds.

“Anyway, aren’t we supposed to be taking pictures,” he immediately diverted the conversation somewhere else before this guy said something that somehow managed to make it to the headlines.

Jason had known to never trust the media in any part of the world and he wouldn’t be surprised if news about what had happened here today was on some news page tomorrow.

The media’s means were that good… or in this case, creepy.

The taking of pictures soon continued and Jason posed with a few people to take pictures.

After his identity was exposed, the number of people he had to take pictures with increased, but luckily, most of the people at the wedding had headed to the reception, and the only people left at the church were the couple, bridesmaids, groomsmen, family members of both sides of the couple, and a few close friends of the family.

A few minutes later, Jason had managed to somehow take a picture with everyone on site and was now trying to run away before the bridesmaids pulled him into another picture-taking spree while using all sorts of poses to cling to him and put their hands all over him.

He didn’t plan on going to the reception hall as he had deemed it might be a bit too much for the day he was supposed to be resting.

Training would be resuming tomorrow and they would be flying to Sierra Leone for the next match soon so he couldn’t spend the whole day at the wedding ceremony.

But before he left, he went over to meet Daphne.

“In the car, there is a brown envelope in the back seat with the car’s papers. It has those two love birds name on it,”

“Do me a favor and hand over the keys to them later,” He said as he gave her the car keys and walked away with a smile on his face.

“Today wasn’t half-bad,” Jason muttered to himself as he put his glasses back on and got into the back of a car he had ordered to take him back to the hotel.