Present Day – January   JB hadn’t paid much attention to the pilot when he had announced the local temperature, but he became very well aware of the twenty-degree difference between Miami and San Francisco when he stepped out of the airport. For the briefest of moments, he was distracted from his ever present thoughts by the drastically cooler air as he met with his Lyft driver, though it didn’t distract him for long; once he was safe within the confines of the car he shoved his hands into the pockets of his hoodie and stared out of the window, letting the gears continue to turn in his head. About a half hour later the Lyft dropped him off outside of the Metro Hotel, a place that looked more like an apartment building of sorts from the outside, but had all of the amenities of an inn; he dragged his two suitcases with him inside to check in and retired to his room, to guide his thoughts into a plan of action.   It was after three in the afternoon, and the city was awake and alive with people. He was tired, after a six-hour flight, but he hadn’t been able to sleep on the plane, and he definitely couldn’t sleep now. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and pulled up the message thread that had occurred between himself and Iris, alternating between the thread and Google Maps. Zara was only a fifteen-minute drive from his hotel, and the closeness of the proximity was too tempting to ignore. There was a very real possibility that this trip would bring about no progress, but it was not enough of a possibility to deter him.   Within minutes a Lyft driver was back to pick him up, and JB sat silently in the back seat as they ventured through the streets, leaving the suburbs and heading deeper and deeper into the city; his mind was again momentarily distracted by the lack of parking lots and palm trees, and the surplus of hills as he traveled. The Lyft let him out right across the street from Zara, which was wedged between Cartier and another expensive looking jewelry store; JB stared up at it for a long moment before taking a deep breath and crossing the street, wondering a little too late if he should have changed clothes before coming as he entered the store. The first level of the three story store was for men, and there were no female employees in sight; JB turned down any assistance from the associates he passed as he headed up to the second floor, anxiousness accelerating his heartbeat in his chest as he went. Soon he was surrounded by women’s clothing, and female customers and employees alike. Everywhere he turned, though, he only found a tan or pale face turned back to him; he was starting to feel discouraged, and was considering asking around for her, or just leaving, and trying another day.   “Hey, Aspen!”   The sound of the name, even coming from someone else’s mouth, made JB’s heart stop in his chest; his head whipped around in the direction of the speaker and he watched the woman, a short blonde, make her way across the sales floor towards a woman standing near the registers. She was slightly shorter than average height, and her curvy frame was dressed tastefully in a loose, long sleeved black shirt, a flowing, colorful scarf and dark jeans. She was beautiful, incredibly beautiful, but was a stranger to him, almost – as JB looked on he came to recognize the heart-flower petal shape of her lips, and her eyes, free of their glasses now, and the puffy ponytail that he loved so much, though it was significantly bigger now. He watched motionlessly as she spoke with her coworker, feeling breath leave his body as she smiled and laughed, the gold, dangling earrings in her ears sparkling as she nodded. He was completely and utterly blown away, frozen in place by the mere sight of this woman. This was Aspen, he was absolutely sure, but he didn’t know this version of Aspen. Over the course of three years the Aspen he had known and loved had undergone a transformation of sorts; he could see confidence surrounding her that he had never seen before. They were moving; JB watched as Aspen followed behind her coworker, walking a walk he had never seen, her eyes scanning over the store as she went – they brushed over him but she didn’t seem to notice him standing there – she disappeared from sight somewhere through a door and JB released the breath that he had been unknowingly holding, blinking slowly.   He hadn’t expected that, af