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Peloton senior instructor Christine D’Ercole said she fell in love with one of the riders in her class.
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In an essay for Brides, D’Ercole said it was her first heterosexual relationship in 10 years.
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She said she views romantic love differently since experiencing this unexpected relationship.
Christine D’Ercole said she spent the past decade as a gay woman, so she was surprised when she found herself falling in love with a man, let alone a man who attended her virtual Peloton classes.
In an essay for Brides magazine, D’Ercole said she found unexpected love with Brian, first through Facebook messages and then long conversations over shared interests.
“I found myself finding things to talk about just to keep talking. And so, we dove pretty deep. Gradually, it became clear that he was going to be a forever friend,” D’Ercole wrote in her essay.
She said their relationship didn’t become wholly romantic until she told Brian she loved him one night while talking over glasses of wine.
D’Ercole joked about his Peloton name, which spurred their virtual friendship-turned-romance
According to D’Ercole, she first viewed Brian as a friend.
They first connected after she joked about his Peloton virtual class username. D’Ercole wrote that Brian sent her a message after class, explaining how he came up with it.
From there, they hit it off, talking about D’Ercole’s love of cycling, Brian’s love of scuba diving, and their mutual love of food and red wine.
The conversation didn’t cease, and a few times D’Ercole realized she couldn’t get Brian off her mind.
“Until one day, ‘I just love him’ rang in my head a little louder. A lot louder. The volume of my heart couldn’t be turned down. All I could do was accept and surrender. I had fallen in love,” she wrote.
When she told her friends of her revelation, she said they were just as surprised as her, considering she previously exclusively dated women.
Brian didn’t expect D’Ercole to admit her love, but he reciprocated she said
When D’Ercole finally told Brian she had fallen in love with him, he was also shocked, she wrote.
She said he’d prepared a speech about his willingness to respect her boundaries and stay nothing more than friends, since she was gay. Brian told her he had similar feelings, but always assumed they were “delusional aspirations” until D’Ercole’s admission, she said.
He reciprocated, telling her he was in love with her too.
D’Ercole wrote that her relationship with Brian taught her she and her love can’t be categorized.
“So, I don’t wave a flag around, and I don’t need to declare to the world which box I’m in. I love Brian,” D’Ercole wrote. “And that love is so big and healthy it cannot be contained in a box.”
Read the original article on Insider