The Streak We Don't Share
Our streak's at two-eleven. I haven't worked out in nine weeks, and she never told the app to stop.
the fitness app still buzzes at 6:40 like she's about to open the door. day two eleven, it says, streak intact, and I haven't rolled out a mat since June.
I used to think it just miscounted, some glitch in the sync. I turned off notifications twice and it turned itself back on, same as it always did when one of us traveled and needed the other to keep the count alive.
tonight I finally opened the log instead of dismissing it. every square this month is filled in by one account. hers.
she's still doing the whole routine, same order, same rest timers, at 6:40 in her kitchen with nobody keeping pace on the other end. she hasn't texted since March. she still opens the app before coffee, before anything, and taps through a workout built for two people, because deleting it would mean admitting the other person isn't coming back to it.
I don't reply to the streak. I don't do the workout. I just watch the number climb on a screen neither of us explains to anyone anymore, and somewhere in her kitchen she's still doing squats in the dark for a partner who stopped showing up to be counted.