The week went by full of activities and frenzied excitement. We all took time to visit the saloon and we pampered ourselves. You could hardly find any of my friends without her blackberry, they smiled often and I was glad to see them happy again. Amanda brought clothes, shoes, bags and accessories home for us to choose from [we are paying as my friend doesn’t joke with her money oo], we seeked each other’s advice on what to wear with what and which accessories to go with each outfit. It was as if we were getting ready to meet the president of Nigeria. This was how we spent our days and by Thursday evening, the excitement in the air could burn a hole through the building. I closed early on Thursday and I was sure I will be the first to get home, but I was pleasantly surprised because all my friends were home already. ‘Sup girls? How una dey, you people no go work ni abi na half day you do?’ I said smiling. They all laughed and offered their greetings, I dropped my bag on the table and went into the kitchen, I got the things I needed and cover it with a table towel. I strolled back into the sitting room saying, ‘Gather around me girls, I’m about to tell you one of my intimate secrets, passed down to me from my mother’. All the girls dropped what they were doing and came to sit close to me. ‘So you all have sometimes in the past how I keep all my partners coming back, I want to tell you it’s not all about skills, I get help from these…’ I said unveiling the content of the bowl, ‘Ginger and shrimps’, I declared.

‘Ginger and shrimps?’, the all echoed looking at me suspiciously. ‘Yes my darlings, are you surprised, don’t be, I’ll explain how these works’, I told them. They sat upright pushing their faces closer to me ready for a lecture. ‘Sea foods are aphrodisiac in nature and what aphrodisiac does to your system is that they make you wanna Be Intimate. They improve your S£x drive and makes you perform better. Oyster is the best aphrodisiac but that’s not easy to find in Naija so we will make do with shrimps’, I enlightened my friends. ‘Wow, how come you are just telling us this? You’re selfish oo, so what’s with the ginger?,

Koyin asked. ‘Well, you all know ginger is good for so many things but the one way concern us right now is how to use it on your honey pot. What it does to your honey pot is that it cleans your bleep, soften it and make it tighter’ I told them winking. ‘Nawa oo, and you said your mum told you this? Why didn’t mine tell me anything about this?’, Amanda said and we all laughed. ‘So how do we use the shrimps and ginger?’ Bimpe asked. ‘Well, you peel the ginger’, I said demonstrating, ‘Make sure you don’t use a big one, just as big as your little finger, then you insert it into your honey pot for about four hours but I like to do it over night, when you remove it in the morning, clean up with mild soap and warm water, sefini!’, I explained and each girl took turns peeling her ginger.

‘The shrimps can be cooked anyhow, but I’ve a recipe you will love if you girls will follow me to the kitchen.’ I led them to the kitchen, put on my apron, and started the preparation. ‘We’ll need butter, olive oil, seasoning, pepper, onions, ginger, ketchup, red wine and salt’, I said as I put the kettle on the gas. Bimpe started cleaning the shrimps, I told Koyin to blend the pepper, onions, and ginger together, by then the water was hot and I poured it on the peeled shrimps, I put the a pot on fire and I scooped three spoonful of butter in it, I allowed it to melt then I added the blended pepper, I left it to steam for three minutes while I sliced some onions into a plate. I sieved the shrimps of water and I robbed it with olive oil and poured it in the mixture in the pot, I turned the fire low, [we don’t want it to burn or over boil]. Instead of water, I splashed some red wine into it and added seasonings and salt, lastly, I added the sliced onions. All this cooking won’t exceed ten minutes, I switched off the fire, scooped some shrimps into a small plate and passed it around for my friends to taste, ‘Hmmmm, wow, delicious’, they all chipped in one at a time. ‘So, what can we take this with?’ Bimpe asked, ‘Anything you like but not solids oo, let’s have it with boiled potato and unripe plantain tonight’, I told them. We all left the kitchen except for Bimpe who is our unofficial cook. We ate and went to bed. ‘Don’t forget your ginger girls’ I said before retiring to my room.

Its 7pm Friday evening and all of us were doing late minutes packing, ‘Do you think this swim-suit is Sekxy enough?’ Amanda asked Bimpe. ‘Why you dey pack swim-suit, is the guy taking you to the pool?’ Bimpe questioned her back. ‘Mind you business abeg’, Amanda retorted. ’How do I look?’ ‘How’s my make up?’ ‘Do you think I should change into jeans?’ ‘I don’t think this hairdo fits me’. These were the kinds of conversation that had been going on all night. At exactly 8pm, our door bell rang and we all went quite staring at each other, ‘This is it girls, no going back’, I said as I went to open the door, no one was there. Hmmm, they want to play games, I thought but as I was about closing the door I noticed some items on the floor, ‘Girls, come see this’I beckoned to my friends. There were two bottles of Moet champagne and four colorfully rapped small boxes. We jumped up high “five-ing” ourselves and we took the gifts and drinks indoors, each rapped gift has a name on it, each took what belonged to her and opened it. Mine was a gold waist chain and a note that says “I’ve never stopped fantasizing about your waist, please wear this for me if it pleases you”, ‘Oh my! It so pleases me’, I said and took it out of the box and wore it. Bimpe’s box consisted of a wristwatch, ‘Oh gosh, this is adorable’, Bimpe said while putting on her wristwatch. Koyin’s gift was a broach and it was so fine, she pinned it to her chest. Amanda’s gift was a pair of pearl earrings, ‘Gosh it is beautiful, I’m in love already’, Amanda said. ‘Wow, these boys sure have class’, Bimpe said admiring her wristwatch. ‘Maybe they had a meeting about us as we had about them, but whatever it is, I’m sure it will be a good weeke…’, a knock on the door interrupted me and this time, Amanda went to answer the door and behold, our princes stood at our doorway. ‘Welcome to the lioness den, please come in if you are brave enough’. Amanda welcomed them into our home… [To be continued]