Two Years Earlier – December   While he had been drawn to Aspen instinctively before, after the realization of his feelings there was nothing that could keep JB from her. He was armed with her phone number, a budding relationship, and feelings unlike anything he had ever known, and he planned to put them to use as much as possible. Though he was elated with how much progress he had made, he acknowledged that this was far from enough; he wasn’t satisfied, but he knew what he needed to do in order to become satisfied, at least somewhat.   It took him a while to build his nerve up, which surprised him; girls didn’t typically make him nervous, though he supposed that that was why he felt this way about Aspen in the first place – she wasn’t exactly typical. He willed himself into it as soon as possible, however; he wanted to take the next step before the spring semester started, and they were forced to return their primary focus to schoolwork. When he finished up with work on Friday afternoon (he was a waiter at a Cuban restaurant on weekends and afternoons) he immediately turned his attention to his phone as he sat in his car, his eyes reading and rereading Aspen’s name on the screen over and over again. There was only a little over a week left of the winter break, he reminded himself; he needed to do this now.   With a shake of his head he took a deep breath and called her contact, leaning back in his seat as he brought the phone up to his ear, listening to it as it rang.   “…Hello?” Aspen answered on the third ring, her voice cautious; she tried to avoid talking on the phone as often as she could, because texting gave her time to get her words together. JB couldn’t help but smile.   “Aspen, hey.”   “Hey.” She had already known who it was on the phone, so the caution in her voice didn’t change; if anything, it worsened.   “What are you doing?”   “Just getting home from work.” Aspen worked at the café in Barnes & Noble, which fit her so perfectly that JB was sure that he would’ve guessed it if he had been given the challenge.   “How was work?”   “It was okay.” She gave him a brief synopsis of her six hour shift, griping a little over a few certain customers that she had dealt with, but keeping her story short overall. “I’m just glad to be off,” she concluded. JB smirked.   “You must be tired.”   “Not any more than usual,” Aspen responded, trying to keep her complaints light; JB shook his head at her.   “So, you could probably go out and do something, if you got the chance?”   “Well, I guess so, yeah,” Aspen mused. “Why? Are your friends doing something?”   “No…”   “Did you have something in mind?”   “Yeah, kinda…”   “Oh, what’s up?”   “Well, I was wondering…if you wanted to go on a date with me.” There was silence on the phone; JB waited quietly for a moment before frowning slightly, leaning forward in his seat a little. “Aspen?”   “A date?” Aspen repeated suddenly. “You…want to go on a date with me?”   “Yeah,” JB responded with a laugh.   “Why?” The question was so blatant and incredulous that it made him pause, and reminded him of her self-portrait, and why he had fallen for her in the first place; the fact that she viewed him so highly, and considered it such a phenomenon that he would want to date her, baffled him to no end.   “You’re really going to make me explain?” JB said uneasily, his face warming up. “Because I like you, Aspen. Is that impossible?”   “Yes.” Again, blatant and incredulous. JB shook his head.   “Do you not want to go?”   “Well, y-yeah,” Aspen responded after a moment. “Yeah, I want to.”   “Great; I’ll pick you up at seven then, okay?”   “O-Okay…” She seemed stunned, and while JB didn’t want to get off of the phone, either, he took the initiative to end their call, so that they both could get home and get ready for the night.   He returned to his family’s home, but found that both of his parents were out of the house; it didn’t affect his process of getting ready, but he hoped that they would still be out by the time he left, because he was still a little too shy about Aspen to tell them, though he was sure that they would love her. It was only four in the afternoon when he got home, and he was left to find something to do to occupy at least two of the hours that lay between him and Aspen; he spent one of them planning the night out, but afterwards the next hour seemed to drag on for an eternity, and he felt that he would die of anxiety until, finally it was time for him to get ready and go. He was surprised at how excited he was; he was almost too eager to start getting dressed, and almost made himself too early to leave again.   That shy part of him was happy to find that his parents were still out when he left; he was able to get to his car and get on the road without blushing his way through an explanation of where he was going. His mind was on only one thing as he drew nearer and nearer to Aspen’s home; he could only look forward to what the night had in store, though he only hoped for good things. A little bit of nervousness came to him when he pulled up to find both the Ford t