Cougars

by Earl Sewell

  “That’s because you’ve never been touched by MiMi before. I made you feel good, aye?” She smiled at Travis and awaited his confirmation that she’d done well. Travis looked at her differently now. When he came in, she wasn’t sexually attractive to him at all. Now he wondered, if she was that good with her feet, how good was she in bed?

  “You’re going to come back and see me soon, right?” MiMi asked as Travis removed his wallet.

  “Yeah. Hell yeah.” Travis could hardly believe the words coming out of his mouth.

  “Are you from New York?”

  “No. I’m from California.”

  “Oh, that’s too bad. I was hoping you’d come back to see me next week.”

  “Look, I’m in town for a few days. I’d love to come back again before I head home.”

  “Good. Let’s make your appointment now? It would be a good idea.” MiMi suggested a date and time that fit into his schedule. Travis tipped her well before saying good-bye.

  Travis hailed a taxi and gave the instruction to drive him back to his hotel in Times Square. As soon as he was situated, he gave Alex a jingle.

  “Where is your crazy ass at?” Travis blasted out his friend as soon as he answered the phone.

  “I’m in a cab heading to the hotel. I just landed not too long ago. Did you go see MiMi?” he asked.

  “That was some weird shit, man. She’s got me feeling high like a damn satellite.”

  “I know. She’s freaky as hell, too.” Alex laughed.

  “Man, please don’t tell me you hit that.”

  “Shit, I didn’t fuck MiMi. She fucked me. She was massaging me and the next thing I knew I felt her toes fondling my balls and—”

  “Dawg, spare me the details,” Travis said as the cab approached his hotel. “How long will it be before you get here?”

  “About another twenty minutes.”

  “Give me a buzz when you arrive. We can go out and grab a bite to eat and then figure out what we’re going to do. I was thinking about going to a comedy club.”

  “Cool, we can do the comedy club thing tonight because I have tickets for the basketball game tomorrow evening,” Alex boasted.

  “You’re bullshitting.”

  “Now, I’m your boy. Would I bullshit you about having game tickets?” Alex almost seemed offended.

  “Yeah, you would, but I believe you’re telling the truth this time. Who are they playing?”

  “The Chicago Bulls, baby, and I’ve got courtside seats, third row back from the bench. We’re talking premium seats, player,” Alex informed him of the sweet deal he’d gotten.

  “Wait a minute. How did you get such good seats, because I know your stingy behind didn’t pay for them? Usually when we go to a game, we’re almost always up in the nosebleed section of the arena.”

  “Don’t worry about how I got them. Just be glad that I’m taking your ass,” Alex said.

  “Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad to be going; I just want to make sure you have authentic tickets.” Travis moved his cell phone from one ear to the other.

  “Don’t worry. I didn’t get them from some bozo on the street. These are real tickets.”

  “Cool.”

  “Did I mention to you about this superfine woman I met?” Travis noticed that Alex’s voice was suddenly filled with excitement.

  “You’re always meeting some woman, Alex. But no, you didn’t mention her yet.”

  “Her name is Jasmine, and if I had to guess, I’d say she’s around forty-one or forty-two.”

  “How does her body look? Is she taking care of herself?” Travis asked, genuinely interested.

  “Her body was tight. Nice breasts, full ass, shapely legs and a walk that says, ‘I need a stallion.’ I watched her as she exited the airplane and the rhythm of her strut had a sweet melody that made me want to get on my knees and sing to her. Her behind looked so good I almost ran after her just to smack it.”

  Travis laughed. “I’ve seen the type of ass you’re talking about. It’s the kind that has an attitude.”

  “Yeah, an ass in need of a serious attitude adjustment,” Alex agreed with Travis’ assessment.

  “Jasmine has smooth caramel skin, beautiful shoulder-length hair and the most alluring set of green eyes I’ve ever had the pleasure of gazing into. Travis, I’m telling you, she has exotic features like the Amazonian women out of Greek mythology. She was strong-willed and intoxicating all at the same time.”

  “Well, did you step to her and throw some game her way? Did you get her phone number or e-mail address?” Travis wanted to know if Alex had upheld his reputation of being a ladies’ man.

  “You damn right I said something to her. I snuggled up to her, inhaled the sweet scent of her perfume and started speaking directly in her ear. I told her that I saw her looking at me like she wanted to eat me alive. She admitted to checking me out, but then flipped the script and started mischievously tormenting me with sexual innuendos. She was without a doubt the type of woman who liked being in control.”

  “Jasmine sounds like the type of woman who wants to do things on her own terms. She may be a little too much for you.” Travis knew his comment would ruffle Alex’s feathers.

  “Man, please! I haven’t met a woman yet that I couldn’t have if I wanted to. That includes married women.”

  “What about gay women? Can your bronzed dick turn a gay woman straight?” Travis mocked Alex and his overinflated ego.

  “Hell, it probably can. My penis power is potent like a mother-fucker.” They both laughed at the silliness of the comment. “Anyway, I gave Jasmine my number and if she calls me or we run into each other again, I’m going to have to put you down and go handle that. Damn, she looked like a goddess to me.”

  “Alex, stop salivating over a woman you just met and don’t even know. You’ll probably never see her again and if by chance you do, she’s probably got a man who makes a ridiculous sum of money that your bank account can’t compete with.”

  “Player, you know as well as I do, wealthy, well-kept women are almost always sexually frustrated. A young stud like me who can stand up in it, is what a lady like her craves. I don’t want to get into a pissing contest with her husband; I just want to satisfy her unquenchable lust.” Alex laughed at what he believed to be the undisputable truth.

  “I’ll give you that. A mature, yet sexually frustrated woman will seek out an affair not only to satisfy her thirst, but also to fulfill some wild fantasies,” Travis said as the cab came to a halt in front of his hotel. “Alex, hang on, I’m at the hotel and need to pay the driver.”

  “Okay.”

  Alex remained silent while Travis went about his business of tipping the cab driver. He then walked into the lobby of the Doubletree Hotel and sat down on a comfortable chair in the lounge area.

  “Are you still there?” Travis asked.

  “Yeah, I’m here.”

  “So what else have you been up to besides chasing ass?” Travis inquired.

  “I’ve just been doing the same old shit. Logging in long hours flying commercial jets all over the country and when I’m not flying the big jets, I’m flying a private aircraft for someone wealthy and well-connected.”

  “What about you? Have you stopped tripping yet? Are you ready to get back in the game? I’ve gotten a few secretive inquiries about you from clients on the private list. They want to know when you’ll be available again.”

  “I haven’t been on the list in three years, man. You know why I had to let that go. The woman from Rio de Janeiro overdosed on drugs in the hotel bathroom. I thought she was in there getting ready. I had no clue she’d written a suicide note before overdosing on Paco. When I discovered she was dead, I couldn’t just leave her there because the police would have found me. It wasn’t fun being interrogated about a woman I didn’t know. I told the police I’d met her in the hotel bar for an easy one-night stand. Thank God they believed me and were able to verify that she had a history of depression.”

&nb
sp; “Yeah, that was some fucked-up shit that went down, but still, man, you’ve got to come back. You can’t let the one incident keep you away.”

  “I’m not saying that it won’t happen, but what will you do if for some reason you don’t get tenure status?” Alex asked.

  “Dude, I know I’m going to get it. I’ve been busting my ass too hard not to. But, if the impossible did happen, I heard about a few leads I can look into. One of them is even in Chicago where you live.”

  “Okay. My father always told me to expect the unexpected and plan accordingly.” Alex shared a few words of wisdom.

  “Sounds like some good advice.”

  “No, that was sound advice. I got the good guidance from my crazy uncle, King Solomon who told me to get as much pussy as humanly possible.” Travis started laughing out loud.

  “You’d better hope that you don’t drop off into some bad pussy one of these days.”

  “Hey, I’m the prince of pussy. I can tell a good one from a bad one and a juicy one from a dry one. In fact, I know all of my women by the shape of their pussy. Every time a lady calls me, a photo of her pussy pops up on my cell phone screen.”

  “You’d better pray that your women don’t turn on you.” Travis gave his friend a forewarning.

  “Yeah whatever, that will never happen. Anyway, I’ll talk to you when I get there.”

  “Cool,” Travis said, then ended the call.

  TRAVIS WENT BACK UP TO HIS HOTEL ROOM, removed his clothes from the suitcase and hung them up. He then found the television remote and turned it on. He briefly listened to an entertainment report about R&B singer Usher divorcing his wife and hooking up with a super fine and amazingly sexy but much older recording executive.

  “Damn, these women in their forties aren’t playing around when it comes to dating younger men,” Travis said as he walked over to the window to see what type of city view he had. He could see hordes of tourists meandering around Times Square. He exhaled as he unbuttoned his shirt and thought about how far he’d come.

  Travis was blessed with a brilliant mind. By the age of sixteen, he’d graduated high school as valedictorian with a perfect four-point-zero grade-point average. He received an academic scholar- ship and in the fall of that same year, he attended the University of California at Berkeley. By the time Travis was eighteen, he was a junior in college. It was at that time he’d met Alex, who was also eighteen, an incoming freshman and his new roommate. Alex was from Chicago and was attending Berkeley on a football scholarship.

  Alex was a very self-centered and egotistical guy, who enjoyed boasting about his sexual prowess, but especially about receiving his pilot’s license before his driver’s license. Getting his pilot certification was easier for him because his grandfather and dad were airmen themselves. His family owned an aviation academy in Illinois and possessed a modest fleet of Cessna aircraft.

  Alex was a decent student, but only when he needed to be, which was generally a few weeks before final exams. The rest of the time he partied, played football and quenched his unyielding thirst for women. Alex made it his personal mission to get Travis to loosen up and enjoy his time in college.

  “Come on, man. You need to stop playing with your chemistry set and come to our victory party. The football team just won the conference title and there is going to be a massive celebration. There will be enough tits and ass for everyone.”

  “You go on and have a good time. I need to study,” Travis had said to him without so much as looking up from his books.

  “What kind of guy are you? How could you not want to party and chase girls? Are you gay or something?” Alex had asked.

  “Hell no!” Travis had said, instantly offended.

  “You ever think about dudes or try to be with one?” Alex had continued his inquiry as he moved closer to him.

  “I can assure you that I’ve never had any such thoughts.” Travis had slammed his fist on this textbook. He was getting frustrated with Alex and his petty conversation.

  “Okay, no need to get your underwear in a bunch. But look, there is a good chance that I’ll be bringing a girl in here tonight, so when I do you’re going to need to step out while I do my thing.”

  “I am not getting out of my bed in the middle of the night so you can bang some chickenhead.”

  “Suit yourself, Travis, because I’m going to do her whether you’re in the room or not. I’m just trying to save you the aggravation of feeling left out.”

  “Don’t do me any favors,” Travis had remarked with a nasty attitude.

  “What’s the problem, dude? You’re a nice-looking brother. A little nerdy, but it’s not like you’ve got bad skin or poor hygiene. Girls will fall all over you, if you’d just open your mouth and speak.”

  “I’m not like that. My parents told me that I had to come here and get an education, not party. They expect me to be at the top of my class and that takes dedication, determination, and sacrifice.” Travis had stood his ground.

  “Getting to know women and fucking are also a part of being educated,” Alex had countered.

  “Whatever, Alex. Just go and have a good time.” Travis hadn’t felt like speaking to him anymore.

  “Okay, Steve Urkel. Have fun playing with yourself,” Alex had said before grabbing his leather bomber jacket and heading out.

  Over the course of his junior year, Travis had inadvertently walked in on Alex having sex on a number of occasions—once during a threesome and another time when he was banging the professor of his Asian-American studies class.

  One afternoon, when there was nothing particularly interesting going on around campus, Alex had offered to take Travis for a bite to eat at a nearby fast-food restaurant.

  “Come on, Einstein.” He had collapsed the screen on Travis’ laptop. “Even you have to take a break to eat.”

  “Alex, I’ve got a lot of work to do, man. I don’t have time to eat.” Travis had opened up his laptop once again. Alex had tried to close it but Travis had swatted his hand away. He was irritated by the interruption.

  “I’m treating, okay. I have money and plenty of it,” Alex had offered. Travis had paused for a second and then changed his mind.

  “Well, if you’re treating, I’m eating.” Travis finally had agreed to take a break.

  “Come on, let’s get out of here. Open up that window first. It smells a little funky in here.”

  “Dude, the funk is from your smelly-ass football shoes. You need to donate those son-a-bitches to science because there has to be a new type of fungus growing in them.”

  “Well, guess what, genius. If you figure it out and create a cure, you’d probably make millions of dollars. And when you do, I most certainly want my share of the profits.” Alex had laughed as he had walked out of the room.

  When they had arrived at their destination, they were seated in a booth seat near a window. They had looked over the menu, made their selections and informed the waiter.

  “So I’m curious,” Travis had asked.

  “About what?” Alex had removed his straw from its paper wrapping and had stuck it into his glass of water.

  “How does a guy who’s as young as you get so many girls and not have any drama?”

  “Because I’m a pimp.” Alex had laughed at his own comment.

  “You are not a pimp. I’m serious. I mean, you’ve got girls coming and going and I just don’t get it.”

  “You’re envious, right?” A sly grin had spread across Alex’s lips. Travis had leaned back in his seat and had given him a condescending glance.

  “I may be a little green about it,” Travis had admitted. “So what’s your secret?”

  “There is none and trust me, I do have drama. I just know how to manage my women.”

  “Manage your women. You make it sound as if you’re herding cattle.” Travis had fiddled with his silverware.

  “Call it what you want, but for as long as I can remember, girls have always been drawn to me.”

  “My, are
n’t we conceited?” Alex and his ego at times had gotten on Travis’ nerves.

  “Hey, I’m being honest with you. The men in my family have always been able to pull women. That’s just the way it is. Ever since I was little boy in kindergarten I had girls bringing me extra food. Hell, if I pouted a certain way, I could even get what I wanted out of my teacher. By the time I was in junior high school, I had girls fighting over me. Shit, when I was a freshman in high school, I’d gotten between more legs than a lot of the senior guys.”

  “How do you know what to say? Or better yet, who taught you what to say?” Travis had asked.

  “Now that’s a very interesting question. I’d say my biggest influence came from my uncle, King Solomon.”

  “King Solomon?” Travis had laughed at the name. “What kind of name is that?”

  “His real name was Sal, but everyone called him King Solomon because he had a harem of women and his pockets were always filled with money from his gambling winnings. He was as brawny as Luther Vandross and was fond of dressing sharply. I was spending time with him the summer before I entered high school. It was during those weeks with him that I learned a lot about life, gambling and women. He asked me if I’d been with a girl yet and I said no.

  “He asked me how far I’d gotten with a girl and I said third base, but it was more like second base. He asked me what happened and I told him that the girl kept fighting me off when I tried to pull off her panties. Then he said, ‘You have to find one who is ripe. The quiet girls will give it up quicker,’ he said. And I was like, ‘for real?’ Uncle Solomon gave me a bunch of tips on what to say, and how to play the game. Hell, I just listened and took notes and if I ran into a snag, I called him up.”

  “So when did you lose your virginity?” Travis had asked just as their food had arrived. They’d both ordered the special—a triple cheeseburger loaded with three types of cheeses, mushrooms along with French fries and coleslaw.

  “I lost it when I was fifteen,” Alex had said as he bit into his burger.

  “Fifteen, come on, you’re shitting me, right?” Travis had asked.