Still recovering from my fright, I struggled to contain my elation as I looked at the man before me. It was hard to be this happy and still look reprimanding, which I tried to be regarding his enjoyment to scare the shit out of me.
Not impressed, Tyler was grinning like an idiot, very proud to have spooked me. It seemed big brothers never changed. Once the fright and the shock of seeing him passed, I hit his shoulder with my fist, feeling avenged when he winced. Before he could recover from my attack, I threw myself into his arms.
I held him tightly, feeling all my worries fade off in his embrace. We hadn't seen each other in over six months. Even before my move to Seattle, he had been away in New York.
Still not realizing he was really here, I let go of him, before moving back, taking in the sight of him. How I'd missed him!
Thanks to our video calls, I knew he'd been growing a scruff, almost a beard by now, so the sight didn't shock me too much. Still, it was odd to see him with so much facial hair.
Physically, we were different in some aspects. He was tall and had our father's green eyes, but we were the same in many others. We shared our tanned complexion, curly dark hair, straight nose, and generous lips. We'd often been told that we looked a lot like each other. It had sounded like the worst insult during our childhood, but now, we were both glad whenever someone pointed it out.
With an unshakable grin on my lips, I turned to Tammy, who was watching us with a warm smile. "You two are so sneaky!" I signed for both of them.
Tyler let out a chuckle and raised his hands to explain himself. "Don't blame her, it was all my doing. Kate gave me her number, and I forced her to accept my plan." He then turned to Tammy, with one of his charming smiles. "It's nice to finally meet you."
With one of her broad, toothy smiles, she shook the hand he'd extended with a nod, returning the sentiment. She then noticed someone in the corner of her eye and excused herself quickly to go to them. We watched her go as I got closer to Tyler, nudging him gently.
"For how long have you been planning this?" I asked him.
"I decided to come home four days ago. About the same time I decided to surprise you."
"How long are you staying?"
"Only for the weekend, I'm afraid. I have to get back to Portland by Monday. If I had known your roommate was so pretty, I might have planned a longer stay," he half-joked, his eyes on Tammy, who was talking to Kat, Jay, and another colleague.
I rolled my eyes but ignored his comment. Tapping his shoulder to get his attention, I resumed my interrogation. "Why do you have to be there on Monday?"
"I'm moving back there. I'm leaving New York." My eyes went wide with excitement. Having him living on the other side of the country had been harder than I thought it would be.
Growing up, we'd had your average sibling relationship, meaning we loved and hated each other depending on the days. Our fights for the remote had been epic, and the three and some years separating us had made me particularly disadvantaged. Still, I'd found ways to have my wins, mostly by telling on him, which I wasn't very proud of.
Of course, we eventually grew out of the childishness and were very tight now, despite our differences. Having him back here, with only a three hours ride separating us, was much better. Thrilled by the news, I wrapped my arm around his waist while he put his over my shoulders. Tamika was on her way back, and she smiled at the sight we offered.
She was reaching us when a familiar face joined our trio. "Hi, guys," said Oli with a hand wave, eyeing Tyler and me, visibly confused.
"This is Andy's brother," Tamika quickly explained to him. Oliver turned to my sibling. His eyebrows arched with surprise, and he went to shake his hand.
I let go of Tyler while he saluted Oli and squinted my eyes at Tammy. Although Kate had abstained from telling her I had someone else in mind, I'd told Tammy I wanted to put my potential romance with Oli on hold. I'd suspected she was still invested in us being a thing, though. The way she'd just clarified what Tyler was to me before Oli could get the wrong idea, was proof of it.
"I've heard about you!" Oliver signed, apparently happy to meet my brother. "You're the reason your sister has come up with the app everyone's talking about."
"I can't take credit for any of that," Tyler answered tactfully. "All I can brag about is how normal-ish she turned out to be, thanks to my incredible skills as a big bro."
I rolled my eyes as Oliver let out a chuckle, as well as Tammy. "If you had been in charge of any aspect of my education, I'd probably be dead in a ditch or locked in an asylum by now."
It was Tyler's turn to chuckle. "You're Oliver, right?" he then asked my ginger friend. Surprised that my brother knew about him, Oli turned to me with a half-amused, half-proud smile. Ah, shit. Now he knew I'd told my family about him. I hoped he wouldn't read too much into it. I told my family about pretty much everything.
"I see she told you about me," Oli answered with a proud smirk.
"Have you met her? She tells me about everything. She's a talking machine. I have to pretend I'm losing reception on half of our calls."
A bit offended, but still glad he'd cleared it up, I pinched Tyler's arm and turned to Oliver, who was struggling to hold back his laugh. Tamika was loving this, too.
Understanding he'd gone a little too far, Tyler patted my shoulder before turning back to Oli. "Sorry to cut this short, man, but I've just driven for four hours straight, and I can't wait to get my ass into a comfortable couch."
Oliver nodded, as understanding as ever, and we parted after greeting each other. Tyler drove us home, which was a nice change from the crowded bus. He had come with his car, an old Land Rover that had been taking up space in our parents' garage, which our mom never failed to complain about. As soon as we entered our apartment, I gave him a little tour. He liked the overall ambiance, which was always a compliment coming from him.
If I was the brainiac of the family, Tyler was the artist.
When our father had offered him a camera on his twelfth birthday, he would have never imagined in a million years it would become Ty's great passion. As it turned out, my immature brother had an incredible eye to catch the smallest details, the right angles, the unnoticed scenes, the hidden beauty of this world... With his deafness came a vigilant eye, because he had to observe and watch what he couldn't hear. Unconsciously, he had turned his disability into a gift.
His exceptional talent had gotten him a full-ride scholarship in a top-notch art school. After that, he'd quickly found his place among his peers. I still remembered how he dreaded having to work weddings and photoshoots the first couple of years, to pay the bills. Whenever I was free, I had been along to help him and serve as a translator and assistant. It used to be a lot of fun to attend weddings where I didn't know anyone and have a plate from the buffet and a piece of the cake. Now, he was doing well enough to stick to what he truly loved. Urban photography was his true calling, and he was entirely brilliant at it.
It was decided that the couch was big enough for him to sleep on it, and he insisted I didn't need to let him take my bed. "I could also sleep in your roommate's bed," he joked while Tammy was getting busy in the kitchen.
He had used Mexican sign language, which I hadn't been around in a while, so it took me a moment to recalibrate my brain and understand what he'd just proposed. Outraged, I punched his shoulder, giving him a warning look.
"Don't even joke about it. I call dibs on her. You can't touch her," I retorted, using MSL too. Tyler rolled his eyes with a groan as he let his head fall back, annoyed.
"Are we seriously still doing this?"
"Don't be a dick. You know the rules."
His head fell back in an overly dramatic way, and a smile made its way on my face, amused by his diva ways.
It was hard to be objective since he was my brother and his ugly mug had been gracing my life from the very beginning, but his success with the women clearly showed he was a handsome devil. Add to this the fact that he was an artist and had a hearing impairment, and you had what seemed to be an irresistible combination.
All he had to do was snap his fingers, and ten women came from every direction to fulfill his every need. Somehow, because of his handicap and artistic sensibility, women were certain he had to be sweet, loving, and caring. Yeah, it didn't work like that. Ty was destined to become a man-whore, being a deaf artist or not.
His magnetic charisma had been a thing early on, and a lot of my girlfriends during our teenage years had been infatuated with him. If Tyler wasn't one to refuse a willing woman, he wasn't one to settle down and have a fulfilling relationship either. As a result, a few of my friends back then had ended up with tears, a broken heart, and no desire to be around me and my rake of a brother.
After multiple debacles like this, we had agreed I had the right to call dibs on my friends and he couldn't, under any circumstances, get into their panties. It was puerile to still go by our pact, but I wasn't losing a friend because he could keep it in his pants.
Still not complying, he tried to negotiate. "I've never had a woman deaf like me before."
"Well, go find another one. And anyway, is it an achievement you need to check from your list?"
"Not particularly, no. I'm just into experiencing new things. I've had a fantastic night with a blind woman of Ukrainian origins once. Freakiest night of my life," he remembered as if it was a fond memory.
"Shut up! I don't want to hear about your sexual prowesses," I complained with disgust. Then what he'd just said hit me. "How the fuck did you manage to get into bed with a blind woman? How did you communicate?"
Looking very smug, he wiggled his eyebrows at me. "Love doesn't have a language. We had someone to translate at first. Then, once we were alone, we wouldn't have talked much, anyway."
I pretended to gag at first, before turning to him with a scowl. "You don't have to be so crass, you pig." I pointed toward Tamika, who was still cooking. "Swear to me you won't try anything with her."
He seemed to think about it very hard, gauging my face to see how serious I was about it. After one last look at Tammy, he nodded, defeated. He then went to get his bag by the entrance. I watched as he took out his laptop and settled it on the coffee table.
"Do you want to see the last pieces?" he offered, opening his MacBook Air. I nodded with enthusiasm and sat down next to him.
I was Tyler's number two fan, our mom being number one. I followed his career with attention, honored to be his baby sis. He was often featured in magazines, sold pieces in art galleries, had had photographs in important newspapers... Our mom kept a shrine with all his accomplishments at home, very proud of how well her firstborn was doing.
His last collaboration with a famous artist based in New York, Helena Thorne, who specialized in rough strokes portraits, was supposed to send his reputation even further.
I had seen some of the pieces they'd done together, thanks to a few pictures Tyler had sent me, and the results were astonishing. The artist had painted portraits over Tyler's stunning pictures, adding her very own style to his. It was incredible how she could add so many details and precision in her work with so few strokes of paint.
Once his laptop was on, he went through it to find what he wanted to show me. I clenched my teeth at the sight of the mess on his desktop. I wasn't the most organized person in real life, but my computer was flawlessly arranged. Everything had its place and proper name. Tyler was definitely not as regardant as me, and what I had before my eyes was an absolute nightmare. That, coupled with the Mac interface, was enough to make my eyes bleed.
I looked away, to spare my poor soul, and saw Tammy was done with the cooking and coming to us. "What are you guys doing?" she signed as she reached us.
"Tyler is showing me the latest works from his exhibition. Do you want to see?"
Excitedly, she made her way around the table and sat on the other side of my brother, getting ready to look at his work too. Tammy was a very social person, and since she couldn't hear people, she was very touch-oriented. She sat very close to Tyler, their thighs touching, and it was apparently enough to affect my brother. He turned to me with puppy eyes only I could see, begging me to go back on my dibs over her. Cocking up my brow, I shook my head, firmly refusing his silent plea.
He pinched his lips together, crushed once more, and returned his attention to his screen. He eventually found what he was looking for in the hellish nightmare of his folders, and showed us a few pieces from his collaboration.
It was remarkable. The duality of their styles somehow matched perfectly, and even with my sparse knowledge of the art world, I could tell those would fetch handsome prices.
Tyler scrolled through a few of them, and we eventually reached the last one. It was a portrait of a young woman, painted over the picture of a deserted skatepark, with walls filled with graffiti and aging concrete ramps. I was so focused on Tyler's photograph that it took me a moment to get to the portrait. My eyes went round as I recognized the face on the screen.
Holy shit! That's me.
Uncertain, I examined the face, trying to see if it really was me. The woman had my haircut, my straight nose, even the freckles on it, my lips, my brown eyes... Fuck, it really was me.
Confused, I turned to Tyler with a questioning glance. He was clearly amused, flashing me his white teeth through his grin. Too startled to even form a sentence, I signed three letters. "W-T-F."
"I showed a picture of you to Helena, and she decided she had to paint you," he managed to sign through his amusement.
"She had to?"
"Well, she needed faces to work on, and she liked yours, so it just happened."
Still not over my initial shock, I looked at the screen again. Someone had painted a portrait of me. It felt... strange.
The oven rang in the kitchen, and I gestured to Tamika to make her understand it was. She quickly stood up and went back around the table to take care of it.
As she walked away, Tyler was following her with his gaze, his eyes firmly planted on her perky rear. I couldn't really blame him, even I sometimes found myself staring at the perfection that was her behind, but we were on a dibs pact. I hit him on his thigh with a frown.
No. I wouldn't let him break his promise.
Tamika wasn't an option.