A/N: For quick reference, here are links to the previous installments of the saga:

-"Cold Hard Cash" (May 17, 2009) s/5067183/1/Cold-Hard-Cash

-"Tina: The Untold Story" (Mar 21, 2010) s/5832803/1/Tina-The-Untold-Story

-"Two Steps Forward, One Step Backward" (Apr 6, 2011) s/6881527/1/Two-Steps-Forward-One-Step-Backward

-"It's Not Over Yet" (May 23, 2013) s/9128470/1/It-s-Not-Over-Yet

She's Just Not Into You Chapter 1: Drifting

It had been three years since Jeanette found herself in a relationship with her best friend, Roberta, an equally shy and equally literate chipmunk, and alot had changed in those three years. The two were coworkers at the bookstore for the longest time, however, after sme time had past, Jeanette felt like she needed to grow and contribute something to the world. After some looking, she found something that sound interesting to her. One of the local news outlets was looking for a new photojournalist and videographer. After a couple of interviews and other standard procedures, Jeanette got the job, so she turned in her notice at the bookstore, and soon found herself out covering a variety of different stories, ranging from hard news and current events to more local interest. On these assignments, Jeanette found herself behind the camera, videoing persons, places, and things for television segments and internet content, while also taking still shots of her subjects for print material. Having a better job with better pay, Jeanette and Roberta were able to pull their resources and eventually relocate to a nicer and roomier apartment. All the while, Roberta was certainly proud that Jeanette was moving up in the world in terms of her living and career, but she was sensing something of a strain between them. Roberta still worked at the bookstore, so that meant they saw less of each other during the day, meanwhile Jeanette's job didn't always have regular hours, and in many cases, she may have to leave for work early or come home late, depending how much goes on during the week. At times, the irregular hours did take a small toll on Jeanette, who did miss having a regular schedule of her days, but she felt she was making herself more useful by being a part of a newsteam rather than working customer service in a bookstore. Certain weeks Jeanette found herself working extra long hours each day, and it would surly drain her of her energy. She just finished another one these heavy weeks after she and the rest of the team finished covering a story about a scandal rocking a local university involving a professor accepting bribes from students' families in exchange for overlooking poor grades on exams. It was another Friday, and Roberta had been home for quite awhile, wallowing around the tiny apartment they shared all by herself. Finally around 8:30 Jeanette returned home.

"Welcome home!" Roberta greeted Jeanette.

"Thanks." Jeanette said, as she tossed her purse aside and exhaled loudly.

"Another late night I see." Roberta pointed out.

"Yeah, I know," Jeanette said, "but this was sweep week, so there was alot more stuff they wanted us to cover, especially around town stuff. That story we did on Mulligan's Fish Stew restaurant's 100th anniversary kept me out there for three hours."

"Yeah, but you took some great footage!" Roberta said, "I loved the slow pans you did on the restuarant's exterior, gave it such a nostalgic feeling."

"Thanks," Jeanette said, "I'm going to hop in the shower, relax for a moment, then go to bed."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Roberta asked.

"What?" Jeanette asked.

"It's Friday night." Roberta pointed out.

"Yes, it certainly is." Jeanette agreed.

"Friday night is always 'our night.'" Roberta reminded her.

Jeanette tilted her head to the side, "I'm sorry Roberta, I'm just too tired, I had a really long and gruling week."

Roberta didn't say anything as Jeanette walked into the bathroom to take a shower. Roberta was feeling emotionally frustrated, as she and Jeanette typically made Friday nights their one night a week for intimacy, however being turned down for that bit of physical contact had knocked Roberta down a few pegs. Later that evening the two girls were in bed, Jeanette had already fallen into a sound sleep while Roberta sat up reading. Roberta glanced over at the sleeping Jeanette and sighed. Roberta set her book aside, leaned back into her piled up pillow, and stared into space. She was sensing that their relationship was falling apart. In her own perspective, she saw Jeanette as losing interest in her. When they got together, Roberta studied relationship advice from different sources, determined to keep their's strong and long term after losing a previous lover, which was something that Roberta didn't want to happen with Jeanette. One piece of advice that Roberta read was free conversation should be observed on a daily basis, conversation that had nothing to do with work, stress, issues, or anything of that nature, but Roberta had noticed that Jeanette wasn't as conversive as she once was. Another piece of advice Roberta read was to make keep physical contact as regular as possible, though Roberta embraced Jeanette on a daily basis, Jeanette's return gestures. didn't feel as affectionate. Yet another piece of advice that Roberta read was that sex should be had on a weekly basis, which is why Friday night was always their night for it, but Jeanette had passed over on it three nights within the past couple of months. Roberta was feeling like she was failing in some area, but didn't know where and why. After a few moments, Roberta finally turned off her lamp and rolled over in bed. She wished she knew what she could do to respark the romance between her and Jeanette, but was at a loss of what to do. The following morning, the two chipettes sat at the dining table eating the omlettes that Roberta had cooked for them. Even during breakfast, conversations were deminishing.

"How's your omlette?" Roberta asked in an attempt to get a conversation started.

"Delicious as always." Jeanette said, without looking up.

The conversation stopped, so Roberta tried to start it up again.

"Can you believe how high egg prices are now?" Roberta asked. "A dozen of large are almost four dollars now!"

"When I was little," Jeanette began, "I remember how Miss Miller would tell us about how upsetting it was that eggs jumped over 25 cents a dozen."

"I'd gladly pay 25 cents for a dozen!" Roberta said.

"Yeah." Jeanette said, as she resumed eating her omlette.

That was the most conversation the two had over breakfast in the longest time. Shortly after breakfast, Jeanette took to her computer and went over the photos she shot during the week. Roberta decided it was time that she look into way of trying to revive her relationship with Jeanette, and decided she was going to do tackle the problem.

"I'm going over to the bookstore." Roberta said as she prepared to leave.

"You're going to work on a Saturday?" Jeanette asked. "I didn't know that."

"What?" Roberta asked. "I can't just go to the bookstore because I want to?"

"Sure you can," Jeanette said, "do whatever you want to do."

Roberta silently sighed through her nose and left. Later, Roberta went to the relationship section and grabbed a few books she could find on mending, repairing, and strengthening relationships. Roberta spread them out on a table, and glanced at the first chapters of each of them. A jerk who was loitering in the bookstore saw this.

"Relationship problems?" The jerk asked.

"Mind your own business." Roberta said.

"I bet if I was in your life, you wouldn't have any problems." The jerk said, in a painful attempt to hit on her.

"Look," Roberta broke away from her books, "I'm gay, okay? So if you think you're wanting me to have a shot at using your joystick, I'll break it! Got it?"

The jerk smirked and walked away. Roberta went back to going through the books she had. She finally settled on one specific book that seemed to best describe the problem head on in its opening chapter. The book was titled "The Honeymoon is Over...Or is it?" The first chapter mentioned there are often cases where after a new relationship has had time to stablize that couples may find themselves becoming bored with one another. Roberta felt this was exactly the problem, that Jeanette was becoming bored with her. Roberta bought the book and sat in her car for a moment to continue reading the first chapter. It suggested that it would be beneficial if the couple began taking up each other's interests and hobbies to give them more things that they can do together. It suddenly made sense to Roberta, as she and Jeanette share many similar hobbies and interests, and that probably was why things seemed boring. Roberta tried to think of an interest of Jeanette's that she hadn't taken much notice of, but found it difficult because they share so many similar interests. Roberta did happen to think that since Jeanette started her new job, she had a growing interest in photography. An hour later, Roberta returned home, finding Jeanette was still going through the photos she took for work during the week.

"Jeanette?" Roberta asked.

"Yeah?" Jeanette responded.

"I had a thought," Roberta said, "don't you have an extra memory card your not using?"

"I think so," Jeanette said, "they were on sale, and I figured it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and get an extra one in case."

"Just what I was thinking!" Roberta said. "How about a change of pace? How about a day of photographing things other than the latest hot scoop? Urban landscapes? Wildlife? Beautiful scenery?"

"That does sound nice," Jeanette said, "I wish I had the time to do something like that."

"You do," Roberta said, "come on, why don't we go out and see where the day takes us?"

"I suppose so," Jeanette said, "I could use a little relaxtion!"

"Then what are we waiting for?" Roberta asked. "Let's go!"

"Very well." Jeanette said, as she closed her laptop. "I think a nice trip through the mountains might just turn into a nice little photo-op."

Jeanette grabbed her camera, and slipped in her extra memory card. Roberta filled a couple of packs for them with refreshments for them to carry with them through wherever they decide to go. With camera and tripod in hand, Jeanette was ready for a day of capturing the prettier side of the world rather than the hard and gritty. And Roberta was looking forward to spending a day doing something with Jeanette. After piling up in the car, they drove off, trying to decide where they would like to go.