Click. Click. Click.

Noah could hear the noise over his headphones. He paused his game and looked behind him. He saw his girlfriend, Katie sitting in a bean bag chair by the bookshelf with metal knitting needles in her hand and two balls of yarn by her feet.

He watched her for a moment, a stern look of concentration on her face. Her red hair was pulled back into a messy bun and her glasses- which she normally only wore at work- were glued to her face. One would think she was performing open heart surgery with how focused she was.

Katie seemed to notice Noah looking at her because she looked up suddenly. Her features immediately softened as she put her knitting to the side. “Is everything okay?”

“Oh, yeah, it is,” he assured. “I was just curious about what you were doing.”

She put her glasses on top of her head and started rubbing her eyes. “I’m working on a new knitting trick I haven’t done before. I’m trying to switch colors in the middle of rows and make it look good.”

“I see,” Noah replied somewhat disinterested. “I didn’t know you knit.”

“I used to when I was in high school,” she admitted. “One of the girls I work with started up a knitting club, so I thought I’d give it a try.”

“Is your coworker a grandmother?”

She gave him a pointed look. “No, she’s actually around my age.”

“Oh,” said Noah. “I just assumed only old ladies knitted.”

“It’s actually a trendy craft right now,” she informed. “Oddly enough, one of the first people to develop hand knitting was a man.”

Noah arched an eyebrow. “I don’t believe you.”

“No, knitting is one of the manliest things out there.” She started to tease him. “Do you knit? Or are you not manly enough?”

He frowned. “I am plenty manly, thank you very much.”

Katie shrugged. “I’m just saying a hipster like yourself would probably know everything there is to know about this.”

He rolled his eyes. “Just because I like to style my mustache a certain way doesn’t mean I’m a hipster.”

“Of course, it does,” she giggled, taking the glasses off her head and holding them out towards him. “All you need is a pair of these.”

Noah bolted out of his seat and tackled her. Katie howled with laughter as she tried to roll away from him, expertly setting her glasses on the bookshelf in the process. He quickly had her pinned under him and started tickling her sides.

Through her laughing, she reached around and got him in the side. “No!” he exclaimed, trying to twist away from her. He managed to grab her hands and pin them above her head.

Katie kept laughing as Noah kept tickling her. When she heard her phone ring, she started twisting around out of his grasp. Noah let her go and she crawled into a sitting position to grab her phone.

“Hello?” she answered, almost out of breath.

Noah got up off the floor and walked into the kitchen as she talked and grabbed a bottled water from the fridge. He walked back into the living room and saw Katie sitting on the couch.

She was still on the phone and he could tell she was on the verge of crying.

“No, I’ll be there as soon as I can,” she choked out before hanging up.

He was by her side in an instant. “What’s wrong?” he held out the water to her.

She brushed the water bottle aside. “My mom had a heart attack,” she said tearfully. “I need to get to the hospital in Kalamazoo.”

“I can drive you,” he was up in an instant, grabbing their coats and everything.

“Don’t you have to go to work soon?” she asked as she began to put on her snow boots.

“I’ll tell them I’m going to be late,” he put his driving cap on. “This is more important.”

Katie hugged him tight around the waist. “Thank you.”

He hugged her back. “Let’s just hope we make it in time.”