Alone with You in the Ether: A Love Story

Madeline had called Aldo and asked him to convince Regan to come to their father’s birthday party. Regan agreed readily, and leading up to her father’s birthday she seemed oddly calm about the whole matter. Aldo questioned her about why she was taking him at all, thinking back to the previous time. He began to actively ignore seeing signs of a pattern in Regan.

For Regan, memories of the fracture unfold differently. She focuses on the moment when Aldo figured out that the painting in her father’s office was a forgery and accused her of being the same person she was when she first made that mistake. Aldo felt like Regan no longer wanted him, that she only needed him, and he broke up with her in that moment. Regan felt shocked, then angry and even violent, and then numb as Aldo walked out the door.

Looking back at the breakup, Regan realizes that she didn’t fight or protest and wonders if that was a mistake. In the days leading up to it, Regan saw her doctor, who plied her with questions about her sleep and her relationship. Regan was more eager to talk about her art showcase that was going to feature her original art and that she achieved all on her own. She finally started to feel like an artist, and like she was beginning to break out of the pattern that had held her for her entire life, and Regan wasn’t sure how to navigate those changes.

Regan’s mother invited Marc to the party, likely intending to disrupt Regan and Aldo’s relationship. Regan regrets inviting Aldo to the party, knowing that he dislikes parties, and regrets letting Marc near him. Looking back, she realizes that she wasn’t attentive to Aldo’s needs or his way of being, ignoring that he wasn’t always as interested in sex as she was. Regan found Aldo alone in her father’s office, staring at the forged painting.

Regan considers whether her relationship with Aldo is over and whether she has the power to change that outcome. She knows that even if they never speak again, she changed him forever, and she likes the idea that she could haunt him in this way. In the end, she concludes that she should let Aldo have time and see what unfolds from there.

At the art museum, Aldo finds Regan’s painting. Titled Alone with You in the Ether (306), it’s a three-panel painting of a blurred landscape, composed of tiny golden hexagons. He stares at it for a long time, thinking back to when he and Regan talked about what it means to be human and how she described art as a form of expression that makes people feel more human. When a woman walking by calls it “pretty,” Aldo feels offended; he thinks Regan explained the entirety of the universe and the human condition of loneliness in a single piece of art. Later, he calls his father and tells him that Regan isn’t like his mother and that she’s his source of hope. He decides that if she wants him back, he’ll be there.

While Aldo is in the art museum, Regan watches him, imagining herself going up to him and different scenarios unfolding. After a few minutes, she grows irritated when he continues to stand there but soon only misses him and silently thanks him for helping her see that she’s an artist. She imagines their future, their wedding, and the prospect of their having children together. She knows she loves him and wants nothing else. She calls him to tell him that their love is a perfect circle and that if they’re traveling through time in a hexagonal pattern, then every corner they turn is an opportunity for change. Eventually, they’ll find their way back to each other, regardless of how many turns it takes. Aldo agrees with Regan’s proposition, and they agree to meet each other at home. The novel ends with a narrator explaining that while Aldo and Regan’s problems didn’t vanish, they were able to find their own version of healthy together.