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Five Women Tyler Gage Loved
1. Mama
He doesn't remember much about his mom—and wishes he remembered less. He was never one of those foster kids who pined for his mom; he knew she was bad news since she started doing dope when he was seven. He remembers bruises, cuts—her screamed profanities when he couldn't help himself and cried because he was hungry and scared and alone.
Before the needles and drugs, though, she was Mama, not Mom, and she had soft brown eyes and big hands that flipped him into the air whenever he cried. He would laugh as he spiraled back down and she twirled with him, dancing to whatever was on the radio. He remembers the steps she taught him those days when they had to go hungry, remembers using dance to fill up the empty space where food should be.
Tyler Gage loved his Mama because she gave him dance.
2. Martha
He stopped calling his foster mothers "mom" after the sixth one, so when he came to Martha Goldham at fifteen, she was just "Martha." He didn't expect to stay very long—with a drunk for a husband and two kids, (including one that didn't even belong to her) in the house, she didn't seem like she could handle a gerbil, let alone a teenage boy.
He underestimated her. She grounds him the first time he outright disobeys her (he snuck some of her husband's beer), and Tyler finds himself banished to his room. He's halfway out the window when he hears the sound of a bottle smashing and Liam Goldham yelling. Martha's soft voice is trying to soothe him, but Tyler hears a thud and a muffled cry and knows its not working. Afterwards, he sneaks downstairs and finds Martha bandaging her arm, a jagged piece of scarlet glass on the table.
"What you doin' out of your room?" she demands when she sees him, half-getting out of her seat. Tyler stops, and she falls back down with a sigh, turning back to her wound. The next morning, Tyler gets up early and finds her downstairs picking up the broken glass and straightening up the living room. Wordlessly, he gets to his knees and helps her, and after awhile, she finally says, "Breakfast's in the fridge."
Six years later, she's finally divorced and living in the apartment he bought her, and she's slowly losing the tension that had seemed a permanent part of her shoulders. He's a grown man, working and making money, but after a long day's work he can still count on Martha's cooking, hugs, and care.
Tyler Gage loves Martha Goldham because she gave him a home.
3. Camille
She's just another kid who happens to be living with him until he catches her watching him dance. "You're not bad," she tells him like she's all that and Tyler can't help grinning a little at the grudging tone in her voice. Still, she is in his room practically spying on him—so he advances with a water bottle and smiles at her screams as flees, trying to escape the stream of water he lobs at her.
She keeps following him—whether he's in his room, sneaking food from the fridge, or crashed on the couch, she's there, a shadow that makes snide comments that are sort of funny but sort of sad too—because no nine-year old kid should have that half-wary, half-hopeful look in her eyes.
He doesn't know what she wants from him—doesn't understand until he catches her watching Mac and Skinny goofing around with envy in her eyes. The next time she snipes about his dirty shirt, he grins and grabs her, making her shriek and squirm as he rubs the offending article all over her face.
When she grows up and follows his footsteps to MSA, he watches her dance and glares at any boy who tries to get too friendly. He can't watch her forever though, and then suddenly she's getting married to a boy called "Moose" of all things and he doesn't realize what happened, and how the little girl he knew turned into the woman at the altar. But then Camille turns and complains about how his tie is crooked and he grins at her, purposely not fixing the piece of clothing.
Tyler Gage loves Camille Goldham because she gives him family to protect.
4. Nora
He sees the fire in her eyes the first time he watches her dance. She's only going through prescribed steps, steps she's probably done forever—but there's still that twist to her hips, that power in her legs, that way she tosses her hair that makes it clear that she's all business.
When he dances with her, he can see her passion for dance in every move she makes and he can't help but be drawn to it, because he's felt the same way since all those years ago when he was a boy trying to forget his hunger. She kisses him with the same passion, and Tyler thinks that she's so much more than anything he's ever imagined and too much for him to handle.
In that way, he's right. Nora's beautiful, talented, and actually kind of fun when she's not all perfectionist- never-stopping-Nora, but she's Julliard, and he's the streets. No matter how hard she tries to relate to his style, he can see the stiffness in her movements, the hesitation in her steps. He finds that he can join her world, but she can't find his—and one day that stops being good enough.
They break up quietly, but messily. She doesn't speak to him for weeks, and he can't look at her without remembering the time when him dancing her steps and trying not to change them too much was ok. They finally start talking again after a month, but it's awkward, and Tyler knows that things will never be the same—but he doesn't regret the break-up. Nora is porcelain, fragile, crystal. He's pure fire—and he can't burn with a woman who might break if his flames burn too high.
Still—she introduced him to MSA, believed that he could be better than a street-bum who'd destroy thousands-of-dollars worth of property for a lark. She trained him, trusted him, danced with him. If it weren't for her, he would be drunk somewhere—or maybe shot through the head because he saw something he shouldn't have. So even when she freezes him out those awkward days after they break up, he never lets them stop being friends.
Tyler Gage loves Nora Clark because she teaches him to dream.
5. Andie
She's the thirteen-year old girl down the street when he first moves in, and the only girl who doesn't try to shake her ass in his face when they meet at Mac's party. In fact, she doesn't touch him at all, and he's too proud to admit that he's turned-on by this tiny creature with the huge smile, soft voice, and features so sweet they seem out of place in the slums.
She can move too, and when he catches her dancing after Mac drags him off to a poker game, he can't stop watching. His best friend catches his gaze, pokes his side, and teases him for the rest of the night, but Tyler doesn't really care, because he gets Mac to tell him her name and address. The next morning he "just happens" to drop by, and catches her in the yard trying in vain to hang-up a pair of jeans on the wash-line.
After he helps her, teases her about being too short, and she sticks her tongue out at him, they promptly become good friends. He looks out for her and she helps him to stay in school. Soon, they're practically siblings—and when Andie's Mom dies, Tyler is the one to hold her. She returns the favor six months later when Skinny is murdered, and they hold on to each other desperately because in their neighborhood, they need someone solid to depend on.
He forgets the heat in his stomach when he watched her dance that first time until he's nineteen, she's sixteen, and they're battling in the nightclub over her future. Her body is inches from his, her face centimeters away, and Tyler would be lying if he said he didn't take off his shirt to try to get her to blush—just a little.
He doesn't ask her out because he still thinks he loves Nora, and by the time he gets his head out of his ass she's dating Chase and he's alone. Still, Tyler is nothing if not persistent, and hey, Chase is cool but he'll never be more than a pretty-boy who's trying to work the streets. (When he watches Andie and Chase dance in the rain, he realizes dismissing the other boy will be harder than he thought.)
He flirts with her, slowly working his way from casual teasing to more obvious innuendos, dancing closer than necessary, using it as an excuse to put her in the most awkward holds possible. Andie West's ridiculously naïve for a girl from his neighborhood, and Tyler finally just grabs her by the neck and kisses her. She tastes better than he ever imagined, but the look in her eyes is pure fury when she pushes away.
She tells him she's dating Chase, and that she won't cheat on him.
Tyler says he'll wait.
She says that she loves Chase.
Tyler tells her she's lying.
She stomps away, but Tyler's known her for years and he can tell she's not as angry as she's trying to make him believe. She stays with Chase, and the boy stalks up and tries to give Tyler a black eye after she tells him what happened. (He dodges easily, but lets Chase catch him on the shoulder, because hey, he did kiss the other boy's girlfriend.)
Three months later, she tells the blond that she needs some time to think, and Chase doesn't even need to ask why. Neither does Tyler, who just smiles innocently, watching as the girl he's loved for a decade decide whether she loves him back. He isn't surprised when she finally calls him up, because he's a true romantic at heart, and a firm believer that true love never fails.
Tyler Gage loves Andie West because she is who she is—and he will never let her go.