Fleishman Is in Trouble

by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

maybe every six months or so, he liked to order a pizza from Angelo’s all for himself and eat it and afterward spend the entire night doing sit-ups and workout videos on YouTube that had the word SHRED in them, and also some eighties aerobics videos. Or because his biggest fear was to be known and rejected, and the only way he could face the rejection that comes along with being human was to never let himself be known—that way, what was rejected wasn’t him at all, but a projection of him.