Jorge’s legs pumped furiously while he imagined the possibilities of a life with Gabrielle. He saw his future reflected in her gleaming teeth and felt the warmth radiating from her flawless brown skin. And every day she stoked his desire with her words of encouragement. “You have no idea what you’re capable of.  Just keep pushing and focus on the output.”

As he rode alongside her over the months of the quarantine, Jorge committed to his own metamorphosis. Now in his early thirties, with his few friends married and his family far away, Jorge contemplated his solitude. His last relationship with Ruthie had consisted of late night texts around the theme of ‘had a bad day, can you come over?’ Eventually Ruthie stopped texting, and Jorge discovered on Instagram that she was sequestering with an annoyingly buff and floppy haired wall-street type.

Scrolling through her feed, he saw various posts depicting Ruthie’s new life with Peter. He stewed over the new couple’s apparent glee as they wore matching ‘I Love NYC’ masks and ran the West Side Highway, or cooked ‘delicious’ Vegan meals in Peter’s spacious Tribeca loft. Alone in his Spanish Harlem apartment Jorge gorged himself on Popeye’s Fried Chicken and Buttermilk biscuits. He had always been a stocky 5’10’’ but, after breaking up with Ruthie, Jorge had reached obese status. So when his coworker mentioned her Peloton referral discount, Jorge finally succumbed to the spin.

As they set up the bike, one of the Peloton delivery men had smiled sympathetically at Jorge and said, “This will be great for you.”  Jorge had enthusiastically replied “Looking forward to it!” before realizing he was being insulted and then spent the rest of the afternoon studying his doughy reflection in the mirror and feeling pathetic. When he took his first ride, he felt parts of himself hanging off the edges like an over-scooped ice cream cone. But, once Jorge found Gabrielle, he decided he would lose the weight for her. 

He visualized meeting Gabrielle with his transformed body. After they had been dating for a long enough period, Jorge thought he might even show her his before and after pictures. Still, he struggled with how he would find her. He knew she was somewhere in the city. He recognized the familiar spires of midtown Manhattan and one distinct golden roof hovering in the corner of her window. A quick search revealed that this roof belonged to the New York Life building. He drew a circle around the area on a map of Manhattan. With such a wide range of space, Jorge worried how long his search would take.  

One afternoon, during his second Gabrielle ride of the day, Jorge spotted a book on a shelf behind the bike. Straining to read the book’s spine, he was able to make out the words Gramercy Park: Then & Now. His adrenaline surged, and for the rest of the ride he shattered personal records. He had never received the elusive Peloton shout-out, but Jorge knew his time would come. He didn’t need digital accolades if he ended up with her in real life. 

As restrictions eased, Jorge began to venture south on his real bike. Riding a non-stationary bike came with different challenges. Summiting hills was harder than twisting a knob to control resistance, and riding in traffic required frequent swerves and stops and starts. Still, so many people had left or were sequestered that Jorge frequently chose to ride from his apartment down Park Avenue, gliding in eerie silence past rows of brilliant red begonias. Once he reached 23rd street and had safely locked up his bike, he followed planned perimeter walks covering a different set of blocks each day.   

The more Jorge searched, the more his body shrank and his commitment grew. Each day included a warm-up ride with Gabrielle and an outside ride to Gramercy. He began to notice subtle changes in the streets and came to recognize some of the same people. There were the postal workers, and construction crews and the well-heeled who seemed knit to the neighborhood. The idea that some of these people could be Gabrielle’s neighbors thrilled Jorge.

After weeks of looking, one day he spotted her emerging from a Jamba Juice. He heard her unmistakably exultant laugh, and recognized the purple leggings she often wore. She was holding the door open and he watched her magnificent bicep flex as she took a sip from her Styrofoam cup. A chubby man with a receding hairline exited the store and lingered near Gabrielle. ‘Move along,’ Jorge thought. But the man didn’t leave. He waited. And when Gabrielle caught up to the man, he threw his fat arm around her wondrously skinny waist. 

Hiding behind the murky plastic curtains of a nearby bodega, Jorge’s mind raced. Maybe this man was just a friend. Didn’t all beautiful women have funny heavyset sidekicks? But then the man leaned over and kissed Gabrielle. And Gabrielle kissed the man back. Jorge loitered in shock until the bodega’s owner came to shoo him away. Cast out into the hot sunshine, he thought he saw Gabrielle glance in his direction but then she turned and, taking the hand of the man, walked away.  

Jorge’s head drooped as he made his way back to his bike. He should have said something, he thought. Even if she wasn’t the one, she probably would have appreciated hearing about how she had inspired him. Second-guessing himself, Jorge schlepped forward feeling disconsolate until he spotted his reflection in the glass of a Gap storefront. The shape of his form now roughly matched the size of the mannequins inside. The idea of being a standard size thrilled Jorge and it occurred to him that maybe he should join a bike club when all the Covid nonsense settled down. The world would go back to normal soon and he was ready to leave his digital reality.

Coleman Bigelow’s short story “The Counselor” appeared in the September issue of Ink & Sword Magazine. His flash story, “Pneumatic” is slated for publication early next year.  For more information on his work please visit: https://colemanbigelow.com/ & Twitter: @ColemanBigelow.