The Time of Aspen Falls

Aspen Falls was happy. Her life was good. Blessed with a wonderful family and a loyal best friend, Aspen did know a measure of contentment. Still, to Aspen it seemed something was missing-something hovering just beyond her reach-something entirely satisfying that would ensure her happiness. Yet she couldn't consciously determine what the "something" was. And so, Aspen sailed through life, not quite perfectly content perhaps but grateful for her measure of contentment. Grateful, that is, until he appeared-the man in the park-the stranger who jogged past the bench where Aspen sat during her lunch break each day. As handsome as a dream and twice as alluring, the man epitomized the absolute stereotypical "real man"-and Aspen's measure of contentment vanished Would Aspen Falls reclaim the comfortable contentment she once knew? Or would the handsome real-man stranger linger in her mind like a sweet, tricky venom-poisoning all hope of Aspen's ever finding true happiness with any other man?