Page 65 of Alone With You in the Ether

“Hello?”

“Hi,” said Regan.

She sounded breathless, almost frantic.

“Is everything alright?” he asked her, and she gave an apprehensive laugh.

“I need something,” she said. “It’s… an odd favor. But technically you asked me first.”

“Okay,” he said, uncertain. “You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine. I’m just—” She was vibrating again. He could feel it through the phone. “I found it.”

“Found what?”

“The key.”

He blinked.

“Aldo?” she asked.

“Yes, I’m here.”

“I need a favor.”

“Yes, sure. What is it?”

“I need to see you,” she said, and then, clearing her throat, “I want to, um. Draw you,” she clarified, and the impulse to be startled faded, replaced instead by a steady thrum of curiosity.

“Me?” he echoed.

“Yes. Are you free today?”

He considered it, watching his breath unfurl in the biting chill.

“Yes,” he said, after a moment.

“Oh, good.”

He paused, and then, “Should I come to you?”

“No no, I’ll go to you. Your apartment is north facing, isn’t it? Light will be good in there.”

What a detail to remember, he thought. The single time she’d been there he’d been studying her, and all the while she’d been tucking away the direction his windows faced. “Yes. Okay.” His breath was starting to hurt in his lungs, straining them inside the containment of his ribs. “Maybe around 12, 12:30?”

“12:30, I think. I should finish what I’m doing here.”

“Do you need me to… to do anything, or—?”

“No.” She laughed. “No, Aldo, you don’t need to do anything.”

“Oh. Okay.” He exhaled.

“Maybe smoke something,” she suggested wryly. “You know, if you need to.”

He shook his head. “I don’t,” he said.

“Alright, fine. See you at 12:30, then.”

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