Mid-October, 2018
"Uh-huh. Sure."
"Dude, I am NOT kidding!" his best friend since junior high insisted.
"A cougar cruise."
"Yes, a cougar cruise!"
"Where 'hot' older women meet younger men. For sex."
"I knew you'd get it, man! Talk about great, right?"
"Yeah. Great. Woo-hoo."
"Come on, Gavin. Go with me, man!" his longtime friend, Darren Lewis, pleaded.
"Not in a million years...man," his friend replied in a monotone voice without even looking at him.
Like his best friend, Gavin Freeman, was also 27 years old. But unlike Darren, Gavin was well-educated, grounded, and had his feet planted firmly on the ground. It was amazing they were even still friends, let alone best friends.
Gavin had gone to college right after high school while Darren enlisted in the Navy. Four years later, Gavin had a Bachelor of Architecture degree, while Darren had a job skill.
The degree program was five years long, but Gavin went to summer school each year to include starting immediately after graduating from University High School in Tucson, Arizona. He was now working for his father at the architectural firm he'd owned for nearly 20 years, and couldn't be happier with his choice of careers. In a little over three years on the job, Gavin had established himself as a very solid architect in his own right, ending any comments about nepotism being the reason he was there.
Darren had been trained as a diesel mechanic and spent his time serving as an Engineman or EN, the Navy's designation for that career field. There was nothing Darren loved more than tearing apart a dirty diesel engine, fixing any problems he found, and putting it back together.
He found work back in Tucson within a month of getting out of the Navy and made very good money getting his hands dirty five days a week. Overtime was easy to get, so as it turned out, he made almost as much as his college-educated friend who made his living with his mind and imagination.
The other big difference was their looks.
Gavin was tall, handsome, and very fit. He'd wrestled and played tennis in high school and continued wrestling in college at the University of Arizona. He was naturally blond, had blue eyes, and truly looked like the all-American boy. Or maybe the all-American model. His family had money, but he'd been raised to work hard, been forced to earn his spending money growing up, and had been taught that every person was equal and deserved respect.
Darren was, well, not as tall, not even close to being as good looking, and while not a slug, anything but fit. Darren often looked disheveled, his curly, black mane more of a bird's nest than a hair style, and after working 8-12 hours in a shop, the last thing he wanted to do was workout. The only exception being the '12-ounce curls' he did several nights a week either at home or out at a bar with Gavin.
In spite of the obvious differences, they picked right back up where they'd left off after Darren came home and still hung out a couple of nights a week as well as Friday or Saturday nights with Darren dragging his reluctant friend off to some new dive or bar in hopes of scoring with some questionable-looking 'honey'. Gavin had tried taking Darren to nicer places and even took him to his father's country club once. But after less than an hour there, Gavin realized it was a waste of time and had never tried again.
But it wasn't like Gavin cared for the country club, either. His family had money, and now, he did, too. But money was secondary. The thing he truly loved was designing a building while tackling some new, tough design issue. Nearly everything he earned went in the bank, other than what he needed to pay his bills which included a very nice apartment located not too far from the Freeman firm.
Gavin had no problem attracting women. In fact, they tended to gravitate his way wherever he went. Even so, during college he was wholly focused on learning to be an architect and limited his social life to occasional 'hook-ups' and then only when he had the time.
He was now at a point in his life where sex was no longer even a small priority where women were concerned, and his thoughts had recently turned to marriage and starting a family. Having proven himself in his chosen career field, the next big challenge in life was finding a loving woman who was pleasant and easy to get along with.
Yes, he hoped to find one who was also beautiful, with beautiful defined as 'beautiful to him', but looks no longer played the role they had in the past. However, certain personality traits were now even more important to him than at any time in his life.
For example, any woman who was loud and outspoken was immediately out of the running, no matter how attractive she might be. He wasn't 'afraid of strong, powerful women'. He just despised being around anyone—male or female—who was loud or aggressive, and the reason why was obvious.
Gavin wasn't shy by any means, but he was quiet and soft-spoken by nature, and to the greatest extent possible, he avoided loud, obnoxious people like the plague. The thought of dating a woman like that was one thing he could never tolerate. On the other hand, Darren was the gregarious one, and he gravitated toward women who were at least as vocal as himself.
Not Gavin. He didn't like drama, gossip, or liars, and didn't tolerate people who did any of those things. He was well aware relationships required a lot of hard work, and that meant that while they weren't necessarily easy, they didn't need to be made more difficult by a woman who was loud, jealous, controlling, or constantly complaining.
It wasn't a lot to ask, or so he thought, and yet finding a woman like that, one who could possibly become Mrs. Gavin Freeman, was beginning to feel like 'the holy grail' of dating. He often likened his search to "The Three Bears" in which finding one that was 'just right' proved to be a very formidable challenge.
Darren, on the other hand, had a small, but very different, set of requirements.
First and foremost, they had to be genetically female. Second, they had to have all of their teeth. Third, they had to give good head. If a woman, any woman, could somehow manage to 'pull all that together', and if she was willing to sleep with him, Darren was her man. At least for that night. And as unlikely as it seemed, more often that not, he found a woman willing to do just that. But this 'cougar cruise' of his seemed like a bridge too far for his unlikely best friend.
"But why...cougars?" Gavin asked. "What's so special about older women? And how much older are we talking about?"
"Someone's coming around, isn't he?" Darren replied with a toothy smile while not actually answering his friend's question.
"I'm just asking. That's all."
"Oh, come on! You can't tell me you wouldn't be all over some hottie like...Jennifer Anniston or Courtney Cox. There is no way you wouldn't hit that!"
"First of all, neither of those women are going to be on this cruise—or any similar cruise, okay? Second, neither of them would be interested in any guy who wasn't a famous actor, singer, or athlete. But okay, I guess I kind of see what you're saying."
"Damn straight!" Darren said, now feeling like he was making headway.
"So...how much older?" Gavin said again.
"Uh...well. I uh, I don't really know. But check out these photos from last year's cruise."
Gavin reluctantly looked over at his friend's laptop, which just happened to be in his lap, and watched Darren scroll through a few of them as he turned the monitor enough so his friend could look with him.
The women he saw ranged from 'not bad' to well, downright scary. Some of them looked to be in their late 60s or even their 70s and none of them looked like Raquel Welch or Jaclyn Smith, two still-beautiful women over 70. He had no idea whether or not the pics were staged, but if they were real, there were evidently a whole lot of guys in their 20s and 30s willingly spending time with these 'cougars', the name for older women who liked younger men. The younger men, Gavin learned, were called 'cubs'.
Just before he was ready to give up, Gavin saw two women he thought were very attractive, and Darren noticed.
"Whoa! Go back," he told his friend.
"See? There's someone for everyone on these cruises, bro!" Darren said as his buddy checked out the two hotties for several seconds.
"So are you in?" Darren asked.
