Page 78 of Alone With You in the Ether

Okay, now he’s deflecting.

No, he’s thinking. She should be an artist and if she wants to go to art school, she should.

He doesn’t know anything about art, he’s just biased.

Towards what?

Her, obviously.

No, he would tell her if he thought she wasn’t good at it. Or at least, he wouldn’t tell her that it was good if it wasn’t.

Well, he’s still wrong. Maybe it’s pleasing to his untrained eye but she can’t exactly justbecomean artist, it doesn’t work like that.

Right, that’s why he said school, if she wants.

She needs something, first. An idea.

An impossible problem? (He’s teasing, but she’s serious.)

Yes, that. Something worth devoting all her thoughts to.

Can’t she stumble on that?

Yes, conceivably she could, but she wants to find it first before she decides to invest in it.

How is she going to find it? Not like that, just to be clear. (He’s shaking his head as she makes her way down his torso.)

She doesn’t know. Jesus, can’t he just be a normal guy, just take the blow job and say thank you?

He thanks her. But also he’s serious, he wants her to find it, can he help?

He can help by being quiet.

She should know right now that the secrets of the universe aren’t in his dick.

Has he checked?

He’s familiar with the real estate.

That’s not what she means.

He, genuinely, has no idea what she means.

(Silence.)

They should fight more often.

She was thinking the same thing. What were his reasons, just blow jobs? He can have those without fighting, it’s part of the all-inclusive package.

No, not blow jobs, he thinks he can feel them (he-and-she them) changing their shapes a little. And he’s been this-shaped for so long that he could do with some expansion.

Weird thing to say, but she isn’t surprised.

She doesn’t know what he means? He’s pretty sure she knows what he means.

Well, fine, maybe she does. But she feels different all the time now, so who knows if it’s him or something else or everything?

Could she have loved him if she’d kept up with her pills?

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