Page 48 of Alone With You in the Ether

“I don’t think those were technically my words, so no.”

“Well, then you fucked up,” she informed him, moving into the furthest left lane. “Anyone serious?”

He shook his head. “I don’t really have a personality conducive to long-term relationships.”

“Neither do I, but here we are.” She frowned at him. “And who told you that?”

“Nobody,” he said, “but I have my observations.”

“Mm, it sounds very heteronormative,” she commented, flashing him a glance. “A man who’s allergic to commitment? Groundbreaking.”

“Commitment is fine,” he said. “Theoretically, anyway. But I find I have some difficulty understanding what other people want from me.”

“Even though you’re a genius?”

“I’m not that kind of genius,” he said, “though I imagine you probably are.”

He was obviously deflecting, but she figured that was fair.

“That,” Regan said, “is an odd thing to say. Isn’t it?”

“I just think you have a very clear understanding of how you fit with other people,” Aldo said, adding, “It’s a good thing.”

“Doesn’t sound like it.”

“It doesn’t?”

“Well, you’ve already told me I’m a liar,” she pointed out. “Do you think I’m a fake, too?”

“Doyouthink you’re a fake?”

She made a face at him. “Not what I asked.”

He smiled.

“I think,” he said, “that the inside of your head must require a specific set of keys.”

“A whole set of them?”

“Oh, almost definitely,” he replied. “I think that, for someone to get close to you, you must have to give them one key at a time. And even then, only one level can be opened at once.”

Interesting. “Which keys in what order?”

“Not sure,” he said. “Your history, I think, is a fairly straightforward key.”

That was fair. “Anything else?”

She glanced at him, but he seemed to be concentrating very hard on something.

“What about sex?” she prompted. “Since that was the previously agreed upon topic.”

“I think,” he ventured, looking a bit strained, “for you, love and sex might be two different keys. Maybe even more than two.”

“More than two?”

“Well, I wouldn’t know,” he said, shrugging. “I don’t have the means to conduct a proper thought experiment.”

She checked, but it wasn’t a come-on. Fact, like anything else. “Missing some variables?”

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