Danki Films, Sneeze Films, in association with A Moses Inwang Film, present Joselyn Dumas (Omoye), Jim Iyke (Mayowa), Enyimna Nwigwe (Tare), Beverly Naya (Temi), Padila Agu (Bolanle). Story/ Screenplay by Diche Enunwa Temitope Bolade-Akinbode, Moses Inwang; Director of Photography, Imeh Frank; Associate Producer, Prince Anyiam Osigwe; Co-Producer/ Executive Producer, Darlington Anyiam Osigwe; Producer/Director, Moses Inwang. © 2019
It is always our ultimate desire to follow our hearts and achieve goals in the pursuits. But it is at the same time noteworthy to follow our instincts (intuition) in the decisions we take in pursuit of our dreams, and as they say, if you do not follow your intuition, you pay tuitions. That is what the literal meaning of cold feet comes in, when we are not overwhelmingly sure of a decision and its outcome, and we tend to hold back or drag our feet. Most of the time, we get hurt when we do not listen to our innermost senses. This story is about Omoye (Joselyn Dumas), who refuses to get carried away by her impulses.
Omoye is a writer/reporter, happily married wife of retired military personnel, Mayowa (Jim Iyke), who, after having a grand birthday celebration for Omoye, takes her on vacation, to celebrate the fifth wedding anniversary. It is all jolly for the family at the resort until Omoye runs into Tare (Enyimna Nwigwe), by the pool, with who she had had a weekend affair at a writers’ conference. It has been over five years since. Omoye was newly engaged, and alone, away from Mayowa. She falls for Tare, and the sexual experiences with him awakened in her all the love juices. He knows how to do her than any man yet. After the conference, everybody went their way, until now.
When Omoye and Tare set eyes on each other, they are both speechless. Tare immediately accuses Omoye to have gone away from him. While still in a trance at seeing each other in such an unexpected circumstance, Omoye’s husband walks to them and formally introduces his wife to Tare. Tare’s fiancé comes upon the scene too, and Tare introduces her to Omoye and Mayowa.
Later in the bedroom, Omoye is logging on her laptop, her innermost feeling about her earlier encounter with Tare. What statement she logged on her computer sums up the crux of the story you are about to read:
“What do you do when you come face to face with the sweetest and most poisonous fruit you have ever tasted? Will you open your mouth for one last bite, or will you run away?”
At night, Omoye sneaks from her marital suite and walks outside the hallway to the foyer of the hotel where Tare is expectantly waiting. Of course, as two old lovers, still having some flames for each other, their skin touch, the kind that gives goosebumps to the loving heart; they stand close to each other, smelling the sweet smell of one you have dreamt often to kiss once more. And they smack their lips in a quick kiss before she sneaks back into her room. Tare goes back to his place, assured that Omoye still wants him for a lover even as she tells him she is married.
From the kiss thenceforth, Omoye will pretend to be under the weather, or she will lamely excuse herself from going outside with her husband. At such, Tare will excuse himself from his fiancé and hangs out in obscure places wishing to get a glimpse of Omoye. One such night, she had just had a brief encounter and a kiss with Tare and rush to her room, and when her husband comes into the room, he smells the same cologne he had smelt on Tare. He suspects his wife of infidelity with Tare, but since it was not conclusive, he lets it slide.
Omoye’s state of mind is the state of fear that her sinful behavior is shameful and should stop. In bed, that same night, she recalls the rough sex she had had with Tare in her hotel room during the conference. She felt hot in her loins, and not long sneaks from her marital bedroom, into the dark night. Omoye wanders off in search of not quite sure what, but runs into Tare-I guess both would not sleep without each other-wandering too, and they meet by a tent. Both hurriedly frisk each other, amid kissings, naked one another, and have steaming sex for the first time after so many years. A beautiful scene, seeing shadows of lovers, not any lover, but beautiful Joselyn Dumas, having it out with a man, in a tent, on a moonlit night. I froze the screen on that scene, and my fantasy took hold of me for a moment.
You could see the guilt on her face when she entered, and her husband asked her where she has been. What she did not know is that the husband had woke up and gone into the bathroom, called out her name, and she was in the tent, giving it to another man. The day after, the hotel invites the guests to a soiree that evening, which Mayowa forces his wife to go with him. Tare takes the stage to sing a Karaoke love song, which seemingly was for Omoye. Just as Mayowa is suspicious, so is Tare’s fiancé of Omoye. On her part, Omoye could not stand the embarrassment and runs from the crowd and clatters upstairs.
Tare drops the microphone and follows Omoye, and catches up with her at the foyer. Once again, they are both in heat. What they did not realize is that both Mayowa and Temi (Beverley Naya) are at their heels. Mayowa catches his wife with Tare and slaps his jaw, and he falls. There ends the fifth wedding anniversary, but the sex that time, that night, in the tent, was so good, Omoye wants to divorce Mayowa over it. Some friends are godsends. Her best friend, Bolanle (Padila Agu) suggests that she seeks counseling, which she reluctantly did. There, she gets stuck with the reality that in sincerity, Tare has nothing more to offer her, besides sex. At least she takes one last bite at the luscious apple, that time in the tent, on a moonlit night, and run away before the serpent catches her.
In A Northern Affairs (2014), she stood up to her abusive husband, Mark (John Germain), and asked for divorce: “I need a divorce…You control me…Can’t go anywhere.” “I am your life!” Esaba (Joselyn Dumas) pushed back, screaming, “Mark, you are not my life!” She got a slap, but still worked away and fell in Dr. Manuel’s (John Dumelo) arm. Here in Cold Feet, Omoye will not take such risk on the relationship with Tare. Omoye goes back to her husband, Mayowa, because Tare is not a man enough.