“Oh, mine!” I cooed with googly eyes.

Tunde looked extraordinarily hot today.

It felt like the glory of the Lord specifically shone on him this morning.

God certainly did not spare any effort when He was creating this exquisite and stunning gentleman.

“Mariah!” my friend, Ife called snapping me back to reality.

“Hmm” I stuttered.

“Are you even listening to the Pastor at all? If you continue like this, you’re likely going to get caught by the whole church madam” she whispered.

My heart skipped a little.

“Am I that obvious?” I blushed.

Ife hissed and continued to listen to the sermon while I drooled at my knight in shining armour

Sorry suit!

Black well ironed suit...

I have been crushing on Tunde for a year and trust me, I have tried everything I could to make the feelings go away.

I have prayed, fasted, and gone on several retreats but it kept on coming back stronger.

Why does he have to be in the ushering department?

Right, so that those witches would die at the sight of his handsomeness.

What was there not to like about him?

He was funny, smart, rich, intelligent, had eloquent speech, dressed well and the best part was that he was on fire for God.

He was the Prophet Elijah in Lee Min Ho's body.

I have been trying to get his attention but they always end up in premium tears.

It was either someone came between us or his attention was needed or we ran out of greetings.

We have never had a conversation before.

The worst part was that he was not a social media person.

Mariah, you know you could try again today, right?

Who knows, maybe a conversation will happen this time?

I hope so.

I sighed and began to listen to the sermon, which I couldn’t wait to be over.

After service, I summoned courage like every other Sunday and walked up to him after begging Ife to wait for me.

“Don’t sha try anything stupid” She warned before leaving.

I took a deep breath.

You can do this Mariah.

“Hello Tunde” I gave him my signatory smile.

Tunde turned with his perfect smile and gave me a side hug as usual.

“Sister Mariah, happy Sunday! How are you ma?” He said cheerfully in his deep soothing voice.

Sister ke!

Tani sister é?

Who is your sister?

“Common Tunde, I already told you to stop calling me Sister Mariah or Ma. Please, just Mariah” I grinned as he released me.

“Ah! No ma, we respect you ma” he joked and we both laughed even though I wasn't finding it funny.

I will beat this man o.

“You look nice today. I mean not that you don’t look nice on Sunday ...but... you just look extraordinarily nice today.”

Blood of Jesus!

Mariah, what are you saying?

“Oh really, thank you. I appreciate” He replied and there was this awkward silence between us.

Oh no, not this again!

“I love your cologne” I blurted and asked;

“What do you use?”

“Calvin Klein Obsession” He answered, motioning his hand for his partner to excuse us and concentrating his eyes on mine.

Geez...

Who knew brown could be so beautiful?

Wait, it's finally happening.

He is focused on me.

“I use Calvin Klein obsession for men, ma’am” He repeated with a playful smirk.

Is he flirting with me right now?

I melted.

“Uh, Mariah. I have been meaning to ask you something”

“Sure, sure anything” I grinned from ear to ear.

“Are you free this Saturday evening? I was thinking...you know.... maybe the two of us could hang out at Chocolate Royale?” He asked softly and chuckled;

”Bills on me of course”

I froze on the spot.

Abeg, who opened hell fire?

This place was becoming hot, too hot.

Did he just ask me out?

“Is that a yes?” He asked and I nodded my head slowly.

“Great! Thanks, Mariah” He replied and left me to join his friends.

All my organs were burning, dancing and screaming with excitement at the same time.

I think someone opened a zoo in my stomach.

Not only did we have a full conversation, but he also asked me out!

I began to jump and dance when he was out of sight.

I had a date with my crush on Saturday evening.

Saturday came finally and who knew Tunde had 2 cars?

I was used to seeing the Toyota Camry but I never knew he had a Nissan Jeep.

To be honest, today’s hang-out was the best I have ever had in my life.

There was more to Tunde than I imagined. Yes, he was spiritual but he was also focused and diligent when it came to achieving his goals.

We began to go on dates and guess who became his girlfriend on the 4th date?

Me!

Tunde was smiling and dancing when I accepted to be his girlfriend which made me blush.

We were officially a couple now.

He drove me back to my home after one of our dates and packed in front of my gate.

“Thank you once again dear”

“No problem, babe” He winked which made me giggle and there was this awkward silence again.

What should I do?

Should I peck him?

I mean since we were already official, there was nothing bad there.

Right?

Mariah, control your feelings!

I felt a light squeeze on my hand and I looked at Tunde.

Is this a go-ahead?

My heart began to beat faster and faster when I saw Tunde's face coming towards mine.

Are we really going to kiss?

His face was so close to mine that I could smell his breathtaking cologne.

Trust me, I decided to go with the flow when he paused and sighed.

“This is not right” he muttered as he redrew himself back.

Why did you stop?

Is my mouth smelling?

Do I have body odour?

“Is something wrong?” I asked in a confused tone.

“I can’t... I can't do this Mariah... I'm sorry" he said which made me flinch.

“Sorry? What are you sorry about dear” I asked while he sighed.

“What if Jesus comes and catches us in the act? What would we tell Him, babe? Will He be happy with us?”

“I don’t mind. Look I get it. Nobody is holy and body no be firewood. Besides, we’re official now”

“But God does mind Mariah. He is not happy when we don’t honour him with our bodies”

“It is just kissing Tunde” I rolled my eyes and added;

“We are now officially a couple and there’s nothing bad in it”

“Look babe, you’re a very beautiful lady, but I won’t be able to forgive myself” He unblocked my seat belt.

You have got to be kidding me.

“I sincerely apologize for what happened tonight.”

To be honest, I wanted to remove my heels and hit his head.

What was so bad about kissing?

“We have to honour God with our bodies babe if we want to continue with this relationship. Am I saying I am strong? No, but we need to work together to make this relationship godly”

“I'm sorry o but were we having sex?” I scoffed with disgust

“No babe, but you know kissing can lead to sex. The Bible said we should flee from every appearance of sexual immorality, 1 Corinthians 6:18-20”

Is this guy preaching to me?

I was mad this time.

How dare he?

“Why are you talking to me like I was sent to make you fall?” I hissed and stomped out of the car.

“Good night Babatunde!” I sneered before slamming the door.

Na me mess up!

I did not pick up Tunde’s calls for a week. Not because I was angry with him; that ended on the third day.

I didn’t pick up his calls because I was embarrassed of myself and there was an iota of truth in what he said.

We needed to honour God with our bodies because He bought them at a price, a very expensive price.

I saw Tunde the following Sunday in church and boy, I was so glad to see him.

I apologized for the way things flared up and we made up.

We both agreed that we were going to honour God with our bodies in the relationship and we would help each other to stand.

Were there times when things got heated up between us?

Absolutely.

But one of us was always there to prevent the other from falling.

I was so blessed to have a man like Tunde in my life.

His kind was quite rare to find.