Sean burst into the room, noticed that his girlfriend’s cat, Mark, was sleeping, and tiptoed over to the desk. As he reached out a cautious hand to pet the usually-grumpy cat, he whispered to Steffani, “Have you heard the news?”

She nodded and continued to work on her calculus homework.

“The new fishing store is gonna be awesome,” Sean enthused as he paced around the room, disturbing Mark.

Steffani looked up and frowned slightly. “Yeah, okay, babe. I’m glad you’re finally going to have a fishing store in town so you can buy tackle without driving quite so far, but…”

Sean had stopped dead in his tracks, and he turned to make eye contact with his girlfriend. “Oh, sorry.”

He grimaced as he apologized, and Steffani offered a wry smile in return.

She went back to solving question five on the homework, but soon startled Sean by slamming her hand down on the table. “Why do they have to turn the studio into a fishing store? Where am I going to work out? What’s going to happen to Mr. Murphy?”

Sean rubbed his girlfriend’s shoulders soothingly, avoiding a dirty look from the overprotective feline. “I can get you a punching bag if you want.”

Steffani sighed. “There are fishing stores in almost every town around here, but that was the only dojang for miles.”

It was Sean’s turn to sigh. “What about a punching bag AND a mat?”

She smiled. “Sounds like a deal, babe.”