Catherine, Starr and Earl arrived at the Best of Friends party at the height of the night. There was congestion at the table, people pulling out money to pay their admission and others displaying tickets. They continued walking into the party.
Earl had carte blanche. He was among a group of guys who founded the Norfolk State Best of Friends group, along with Kent, Kevin and Hank Davis, David A. Brown, Kevin Jones, Kerry Muldrow, Keith “Blind” Gibson, Sam Henry, Troy Lemon, Kris Charity, Ron Payne, Joe Cosby and Gerald Berry. Most of them lived in the River Oaks apartment complex down Princess Anne Road, near Military Highway.
For twenty-five years they put together an upscale event that grew into the must-attend occasion of homecoming. On this night, it was rocked by the appearance of Earl and Catherine together, hand-in-hand.
By the time they settled into a table on the left side of the ballroom, Earl’s frat brother Myron had been approached by a half-dozen women asking about Earl and Catherine. It was a couple that made sense, really: two good people deserved to be together. But it still was shocking to see because hardly anyone was clued in that they were so close, much less in love.
Catherine could not sense the interest in their arriving together. Earl could. Even his friends who knew but had not seen them together stared. Catherine looked as beautiful as advertised, and she and Earl, who wore a chocolate brown suit, looked ideal together.
When he went to the bar to get drinks, he was virtually attacked by friends who wanted to know the deal.
“You’re with Catherine?” “How did this happen?” “When did this happen?”
Earl smiled and carried on without saying a word.
“Boy, you and Catherine have this place buzzing,” Myron said. “Honeys are tripping me out. I’m telling them, ‘It’s obvious they’re together. Why you asking me?’ Listen, forget that. I know her from school but I want a formal introduction.”
“All right,” he said. “We have a table in the back left. Just come on back there.”
When he got back to the table, Catherine introduced him to some of her friends he did not know and some he did. “Earl and I are together,” he heard her say to some old friends Mike and Brigitte Booker-Rogers, who also knew each other in college and reconnected many years later.
“You threw me off when you asked me if I was going to ride with you to the party,” Earl told Catherine at the table. “It made me think you didn’t want me to.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said. “I wasn’t sure how you wanted us to be seen to our classmates. So, that’s why I asked.”
Earl said: “Well, I finally said, ‘If she doesn’t want me to go with her, she’s just going to have to tell me.”
“Well, I’m glad you did, baby,” Catherine said, holding his hand. “That’s what I wanted. I want the whole world to know that we’re together and that I love you.”
Then she leaned in and they kissed, and it seemed the entire ballroom was looking. They posed for photos and danced and enjoyed each other as they always had. They were having their own little private party within the party.
One by one, their friends made it over to their table, interested in saying hello and confirming with their own eyes that they were together. Earl was reserved and subdued in how he dealt with their friends. Catherine was direct: “This is my man, Earl,” was how she introduced him.
Their relationship was hardly a secret, but not many people knew. This was their coming-out party, and they did it with a bang.
“We’ve got to talk,” Leslie, Earl’s friend, said when they connected for a moment. She and Earl kept in touch, but had not spoken in several months, so she was surprised to see him with Catherine.
Earl went outside the ballroom and admired what he saw: Alphas and Ques and Kappas convening, as one; Deltas and AKAs posing for photos; women complimenting each other on how they looked; brothers laughing and joking; old cliques still together, twenty-five years later; cameras flashing all over the place.
“Eddie,” Earl called out and Eddie Keith turned around.
“Oh, shit,” he said loudly when he saw Earl. They had not seen each other since 1981. They hugged and laughed and recalled going to the closed-circuit viewing of the Sugar Ray Leonard-Tommy Hearns welterweight championship fight at the Scope.
“It was September 16, 1981, to be precise,” Earl recalled. “I had thirty dollars to my name. That’s it. It cost twenty-five dollars to go see the fight. It was a Wednesday night. I left myself with five dollars. I wasn’t going to miss that fight.”
“That’s a hell of a college memory,” Eddie said. “Sugar Ray won in an epic fight. Great night.”
Catherine had not been to homecoming since her divorce, although she lived in the area. Many of her old classmates had not seen her over that time, so it was especially nice for her to see familiar faces, especially so many of her sorority sisters.
But as nice as that was, it was all about Earl for her. And it was all about Catherine for him.
Earl’s friends joked with him about all the attention he gave Catherine. And he didn’t care.