Homecoming Weekend (24 page)

Don heard Jesse, but he didn't process much of it. The alcohol had him going, and he was sipping on another. There was such commotion at the entrance to the party, with so many converging at once, that Don and Jesse did as they had any number of times: They walked right into the event without paying.

“The key is to keep moving and to not make eye contact with anyone who's working the door,” Jesse told Collette when they were inside. “You have to look like you are supposed to be inside. You have to be confident. We were willing to pay. But I didn't want to have to wait through all that drama to spend my money.”

“So what's been going on with you?” she said, more interested in Jesse than how he got into the party. “I remember clearly the last time I saw you.”

“I remember it, too,” he said. “It was kinda awkward.”

“Very awkward,” she said. “But I should have thanked you long before now, but you saved me from hell that weekend. You treated me and my husband with respect, and that was right on time with all I had been dealing with.”

“I can only imagine,” Jesse said.

“No, you can't,” Collette said. “You can't imagine what it felt like to look into your husband's eyes and see so much pain and disappointment . . . in you. Those assholes had some pretty mean
things to say to me in front of my husband. That was totally unnecessary. What might have happened years ago, when I was nineteen, twenty, twenty-one years old, had nothing to do with who I am today. And there was no reason to humiliate me in front of my husband.”

Collette looked and sounded sad. “To this day, I don't understand them. I know they were drunk, but you have to have a mean spirit in you to be that way to someone who was always nice to them.”

“Well, I agree with you on almost everything you said,” Jesse told Collette. “Remember how close we were and how much you used to share with me. I told you to not deal with certain people. And those people were the same people who turned on you three years ago.”

“Really? I can't even count how many years later and you're telling me ‘I told you so'?” Collette said, smiling. “I really don't mind them talking about me to my face. I don't mind facing that because that was me at that time. But to try to hurt me by saying those things in front of my husband . . . ?

“If you notice, you didn't see me at any more events the entire weekend. I didn't want to go anywhere else. I just knew someone was going to make it worse for me and my relationship. We didn't even go to the game. We watched on television—him not even speaking to me. Finally, we had a heart-to-heart.

“He wanted to know why those guys were so vulgar and mean toward me. I told him he had his chance to ask them himself, that I couldn't account for anyone's actions but my own. He asked me what my relationship was with them; I told him we went to school together and that some of them I knew, some I didn't. Then he finally came out with it: He said, ‘Did you fuck all those guys?' I just looked at him.

“Here's the thing, Jesse: From what I could tell, I didn't sleep with any of the idiots making comments. They were just drunk and talking shit. So I told my husband, ‘No, I didn't, which was the truth.' He didn't believe me and kept asking me questions about why they would act the way they did.

“Finally, I had it. I told him, ‘You just stood there and let them say things about me and you didn't say a word; you got mad at me. That's not how it's supposed to be. You're supposed to protect me and if it came down to it, take an ass-whipping defending me. But you didn't. You didn't say one damn word.”

“Ah, man,” Jesse said. “I'm sorry it got so ugly.”

“Me, too,” she said. “But I learned he didn't have my back. I would have pulled some bitch's eyes out if they had disrespected him in front of me. Or I would have at least tried to. That whole episode wasn't the reason we broke up, but it was the beginning of the end.”

“I'm sorry, Collette,” Jesse said.

“It wasn't your fault. And I'm fine now,” she said. “I guess I learned two things; if you're not going to be proud of it later, don't do it. In college I wanted to experiment; I wanted to test the waters. I guess when a woman does that, she'd better be ready to get labeled.”

“The double standard is true,” Jesse said. “What's the other thing you learned?”

“Oh,” Collette said, “don't bring your spouse to homecoming.”

They both laughed.

“Come on,” Jesse said, “let's dance.”

“You were always really nice to me,” she said. “I always appreciated that about you. Even as I was going through my wild stage, you never judged me or looked at me differently. That's a true friend.”

Catherine and Earl

E
arl and Catherine skipped the step show, the jazz concert and the all-black party on Friday night and the parade on Saturday morning. They were in the homecoming spirit, but more into their own world. Elevating their relationship by making love on Thursday night (and Friday morning), had created an insatiable desire that was hard to harness.

Those displays of passion grew their affection into the stratosphere, and so, after Earl played golf and hung out with friends in the clubhouse, he and Catherine spent Friday evening over dinner at Catch 31 on the Virginia Beach oceanfront. There was time to make the all-black party afterward, but they bypassed that opportunity for a chance to spend more intimate time together.

“What's so special about what I'm feeling right now,” Earl said to Catherine, “is that I expected you to be so wonderful and special just based on what I knew about you in college, from being around you and observing you. But you're better than I even imagined.”

He leaned over and kissed her waiting lips, another show of public affection that surprised him. He considered himself a romantic, but the women of his past hardly appreciated his actions. If they did, they did not let him know it, which made him vow to hold back displays of thoughtfulness until he had a confident grasp on the person he was seeing.

Earl never felt as comfortable and confident with a woman as he did with Catherine, but he still told himself he would hold back. And yet, he could not. There was a magnetic force between them, and so trying to play coy simply would not work. They were drawn to each other, like human magnets.

“Thank you for saying that, Earl,” Catherine said, blushing like a schoolgirl. “That means a lot to me. And I hope you know the feeling is mutual. I knew you as Earl Manning, a gentleman who seemed serious about his career. I had no idea about who you really were. And the more I get to know, the more I like, the more I love.

“You do know I love you, right? Can you feel it? I hope you can feel it.”

“I can feel it—when I'm inside you, when I'm close to you and even when we're apart, which really speaks to our connection,” he said. “We're good together. And I think we can be great together.”

The passion they shared was almost touchable. There was a mutual respect, admiration and attraction. They could not mask it if they tried; making their impending appearance together on campus something that would send the gossipy folks into a craze.

They planned to go to the tailgate and the game separately: Catherine with her girlfriends and Earl with his fellas. They would no doubt see each other there, but it would not be obvious they were in a relationship. But the Saturday night Best of Friends party was the big capper to a phenomenal weekend. Alumni came out by the hundreds, dressed beautifully and in wonderful spirits. It also was the last opportunity for those looking for love (or sex) to close the deal before the close of homecoming. So, the drinks flowed and people danced and mingled all the way beyond 3 a.m.

“You know this is going to be news when we show up together at that party,” Earl said.

“You think so?” Catherine asked, which was typical. Her spirit was so pure that she seldom made assumptions. She took a moment or an occasion for what it was. She certainly did not expect that a buzz would be created because of her and Earl's hook-up.

So, Earl had to break it down for her. “It's human nature for people to whisper and spread the word when two people they did not expect to be together become a couple. In our case, you were thought of as among the finest one or two women during our era at Norfolk State. I can tell you that with one hundred percent confidence. That's what men thought then and, baby, it is amazing, but you look better now, almost thirty years after graduating. So, if you showed up at the Best of Friends party with
anyone
, it would be gossip.

“But you're showing up with
me
. People knew we knew each other but they would not put us together. I can't say how I was regarded in college. I do know I have a lot of friends from Norfolk State—and gained even more through Facebook. And we're pretty much here today because of your friends and how they regarded me. I'm grateful to them because I know your girls, but only on the surface. I didn't know any of them in-depth. So, for them to encourage you to reach out to me says something about how people looked at me.

“Us together? At the Best of Friends party? That's going to be the subject of much discussion. I can promise you that.”

“Well, I guess you're right, huh?” Catherine said. “You said something about people not expecting us to be together. I understand your point, but being with you, really knowing you now . . . it makes sense that we would be together.

“I'll tell you a secret,” she added. “I didn't reach out to you a year ago when you sent me a friend request on Facebook because something in me told me that you were wonderful and I wasn't
ready for you. I was in a relationship and I don't see more than one man at a time. Shoot, I haven't dated but three or four men since college. But my point is I felt something about you a long time ago. I wasn't sure what it was. But the last time I saw you before September was ten years ago. And I was married and I had to walk away from you. There was something about you that made me know I needed to leave. So I did.

“This summer, my girls kept saying, ‘Catherine, Earl is such a nice guy.' This went on for a while until I promised I would e-mail you . . . That was the smartest thing I have ever done.”

They smiled at each other. “Thank you,” Earl said.

“For what?”

“For saying that. For e-mailing me. For being who you are. For loving me,” he said.

They spent the rest of their dinner eating and sharing loving thoughts. When it was time to go, Catherine suggested they go back to her place to relax. That sounded great to Earl.

At her place, she pulled out a bottle of Vueve Cliquot and a slice of brie with apricot topping. She lit candles and turned on Sade as Earl popped the champagne. She pulled out a pair of flutes and Earl filled the glasses with bubbly.

Catherine stood in front of Earl, in five-inch heels and a luxurious silk dress, with champagne in hand. Earl looked down into her eyes.

“You are my baby,” he said.

“You are my baby.”

They sipped champagne and then kissed.

“I adore you,” he said.

“I adore you.”

They sipped champagne and then kissed.

“I love you,” Earl said.

“I love you,” she repeated.

They sipped champagne and then shared a long, sensual kiss.

“This is the best homecoming ever,” she said. “And we haven't even been a part of it yet.”

They took a seat on Catherine's couch. Earl had her put her legs in his lap so he could take off her pumps. “You should be comfortable.”

Catherine sat up and sliced the brie and served it to Earl. And he served some to her. They were experiencing another fairy tale-type night, culminating with another lovemaking session that lasted well into the early morning.

Afterward, they lay on their backs, breathing heavily and mesmerized by their connection.

“I'm not going to cry this time,” Catherine said. “But my heart is so full. I am in love with you and I want everyone to know it.”

Earl did not say anything. He just pulled her to him, and she rested on his chest and they fell asleep together.

That morning, Earl was awakened to kisses from Catherine, starting still another heated, passionate expression of love and affection. It was not even 7 a.m.

“It's going to be a beautiful day,” Earl said, “if what just happened is any indication . . . Amazing.”

They fell asleep for another hour or so before Catherine got up and made them breakfast. They sat at her bar and enjoyed the meal and smiled at each other like kids in love for the first time.

Their plan was to meet on the Yard during the tailgate following Catherine's Delta Sigma Theta brunch. She drove him back to his hotel room, where Earl contacted his Alpha Phi Alpha brothers and let them know he would meet them at the fraternity's set-up at the tailgate. The weather agreed with the occasion: seventy-two and sunny. Earl wore jeans and a frat T-shirt—the first time
in two decades he wore Alpha paraphernalia. It was the fiftieth anniversary of his chapter, Epsilon Pi, and brothers came back in resounding numbers wearing the colors.

After checking e-mails and making a few more calls, Earl walked from the Marriott Waterside a few blocks to the Light Rail, a train commuter system that recently began operation. It was a quick and smooth ride through downtown, past the minor league baseball stadium and just outside of campus.

The train was packed with Norfolk State supporters ready for a good time. The football game mattered, too—the Spartans were challenged by Howard University—but not as much as the fun to be had at the tailgate. Or as much fun as watching the outstanding NSU band, the Mighty Spartan Legion.

Earl could see the massive gathering of people already on campus from the train's platform, and a sense of pride rushed through his body. When he was a student, Norfolk State did not have an on-campus stadium. The Spartans played their “home” football games at Old Dominion, so there was no remarkable mass of more than ten-thousand supporters at the tailgate. Throw in the thirty-five thousand that pack the football stadium and there were upward of forty-five thousand people on the NSU campus for homecoming. It was a spectacular sight with the feel of an enormous family reunion.