For anyone interested in creative writing, I’ve joined Bare Bones, a flash fiction club with monthly challenges and (e)meet ups.

This month’s brief was to bring a little humour back to daily life and tell a story in 150 words using the following prompts:

GENRE: Comedy 

ACTION: Your prescribed daily exercise 

WORD:  Nerve

Here’s my entry.

You can’t run from fate, when you’re on a stationary bike.

Despite my view from the floor, I could see the confusion in his eyes.

His limbs had slowed to a standstill and, unusually, my Josh was lost for words. 

23,000 pairs of eyes watched him. Wondering if this was a training trick. A glitch, perhaps.

This was no glitch.

What had started as a fitness-based transaction had blossomed into WAY more. 

I knew from his stares through the screen as I logged-on every morning. From his choosing my favourite song in last week’s incline sprint.

It was this knowledge that had pushed me, a middle-aged mother of four, to the summit of the leaderboard.

My legs like jelly, I heaved my sweating frame upwards, clinging to the bike as he read from the prompt on his screen.

‘Well-done to today’s winner, ‘JoshAidenWinterWillUMarryMe934’… how the f*** does she know my middle name?!’.

I passed out.