As Jeanette and Eleanor continued conversing in the food court of the mall, Roberta wandered down one of the wings until she found herself walking into the JC Penney at the end of the corridor. She got to thinking on what she had previously read the second chapter of her relationship help book and thought about how it was perhaps time to give herself a makeover. She entered JC Penney and browsed through their selections to see what she might like. For quite some time, Roberta's signature outfit consisted of a black minidress and matching boots. She remembered Jeanette once telling her her black attire with her brown hair made her look mysterious, and suggested it could be why so many jerks try to hit on her all the time. While Roberta had yet to find anything, she made up her mind that she was going to steer clear of dark colors, hoping in addition to giving herself a new look, she would also wouldn't attract so many flirts as well. Like Jeanette, Roberta wasn't much into fashion, neither of them went shopping for clothes very much. Prior to getting her new job with the news station, Jeanette typical wore ill-fitting clothes, but she always managed to look cute in no matter what she wore. Roberta's style was usually plain and simple, so she thought maybe she should look into more eye grabbing attire, though she didn't want anything flashy or gaudy. She browsed through a selection of summer apparrel, taking a few dresses, tops, skirts, shorts, into consideration. She thought about how blue and purple were Jeanette's favorite colors, so she selected two pairs of outfits to try on. One was a little dress that was a sea of different shade of bright blue, the other was a little purple top with white shorts. She stepped into a dressing room to try them. When she stripped down to her underwear, Roberta caught a glimpse of herself in the full mirror, and admired her figure.
"I can't believe Jeanette could get bored with this!" Roberta barked to herself.
Jeanette did used to complement Roberta's figure earlier in their relationship. She used to speak of her naturally full and large bust, as well as her well shaped legs. Roberta certainly liked what she saw. She tried on the blue dress first. Despite it being marked in her size, she found it to be too loose and flowy, though she liked the length of the skirt as well as the length of the sleeves that covered just her shoulders. After that, she tried on the purple top and the white shorts. The top had a much better fit than the dress, it hugged her body in all the right places, she felt it helped accentuate her bust, and she liked it was sleeveless. She felt the shorts were of a perfect length, though she found them to be tight and uncomfortable. Roberta heard a buzz from the pocket of her black minidress hanging on the hook, she pulled her mobile phone out and saw Jeanette had texted her that she and Eleanor were finished with lunch and that she was ready to leave.
A few moments later, Jeanette was waiting patiently around the entrance of the food court when Roberta finally reappeared among the sea of people.
"There you are," Jeanette said, "I was wondering where you were."
"Oh, yeah, sorry," Roberta said, "I was just trying on some new clothes."
"You?" Jeanette asked.
"Yeah." Roberta said. "Why?"
"No reason," Jeanette said, "I just can't remember the last time you looked for new clothes."
"I can say the same about you until you got your new job." Roberta retorted.
"Okay, okay," Jeanette said, as she turned to leave, while Roberta followed. "See anything you liked?"
Roberta shruged in a coy manner. "Oh, a couple of possibilities."
"Really?" Jeanette asked.
"Yeah." Roberta said.
"Why do you get them?" Jeanette suggested.
Roberta paused for a moment. "Is it in our budget?"
"I suppose so, if they're reasonable." Jeanette said.
After paying $75 for the dress, $50 for the top, and $35 for the shorts, Jeanette and Roberta found themselve out close to two hundred dollars. Jeanette quietly cursed Roberta's sudden fashion conscience, knowing it would delay her own purchase of a new camera. Later that evening, Jeanette relaxed on the sofa, watching the DVR recordings of the footage she filmed for the news in the weeks before. In the bedroom, Roberta tried to decide on which of her two new outfits she'd wear first. Figuring she was desperate, she went with the top and shorts. She walked out into the living room and started conversing with Jeanette as an excuse to get her to notice her.
"You don't mind if we do leftovers tonight, do you?" Roberta asked. "I can't think of what to cook tonight."
"Sure, no problem, take a break," Jeanette said, without looking out, "oh, will you look at this?"
"What's wrong?" Roberta asked.
They observed the screen, and the newscast Jeanette was watching, which was out in the field, suddenly had a very blurry, distorted, and pixelate picture.
"Sometimes I can't stand those field cameras of theirs," Jeanette moaned, "they're so cheap, you'd think they could afford better ones."
Roberta intentionally stepped in front of the TV to block Jeanette's view. "Doesn't help that they're number three in a four station market, does it?"
"No," Jeanette said, unfazed by Roberta blocking the TV, "they're trying to improve, but they're just not doing a very good job of it."
Roberta was practically biting her tounge to get Jeanette to notice her, but at that moment, Jeanette simply tossed the remote aside, rose from the sofa, stretched, and walked into the kitchen.
"What kind of leftovers do we still have?" Jeanette asked.
Roberta stifled a scoff as she stormed back into the bedroom, slamming the door behind her, starling Jeanette.
"What's gotten into her?" Jeanette asked.
Roberta slipped into the bathroom and took another look at herself in the new outfit. With the top accentuating her bust, and the shorts showing off a decent amount of her legs, she was sure that this would grab Jeanette's attention. Roberta groaned loudly as she went back into the bedroom and changed back into her old dress, while tossing her new outfit aside. The following day, Roberta was determined to get Jeanette to notice her, so when she got through with her shift at the bookstore, she went home and changed into her new blue dress, and spawled out on the sofa, waiting for Jeanette to return home from work herself. It turned out to be another late night for Jeanette after she and the rest of the news team had to cover a fire that broke out in an apartment complex in another part of town, and the hard hitting news story gave her such a rush of adrenaline that when she finally returned home, Jeanette had a hard time settling down.
"Boy, what a day!" Jeanette said, walking through the door, "did you happen to see the fire we covered on the news? That was pretty scary!"
Jeanette walked into the kitchen to grab herself a drink from the refridgerator, while Roberta continued to wait on the sofa until she noticed her. Jeanette gulped from her bottle of sprite as she walked back into the living room.
"Nobody knows exactly what happened," Jeanette continued, "there's a possibilty it may have been a grease fire started when someone in one of the apartments was cooking, but the fire department is still investigating the cause."
Roberta eyeballed Jeanette as she paced around the living room, while gulping her sprite.
"I'll tell you, it was pretty scary," Jeanette continued, "quite abit of damage too, the apartment the fire started in and the one directly above it were pretty much wiped out."
Roberta continued to eyeball, and Jeanette continued to pace.
"Good thing we managed to get ourselves insured, huh Robbie?" Jeanette said. "I just hope we can prevent our coverage from lapsing again. Good thing I'm bringing in more money than I used to when I worked at the bookstore."
Jeanette took another big gulp of her sprite, while Roberta still eyeballed her.
"I guess you must feel a little akward and lonely at the bookstore during the day without me there working too, huh?" Jeanette asked, hypothetically.
"You said a mouthful." Roberta growled.
"Well, life goes on," Jeanette said, as she approached the sofa, "may I?"
Roberta pulled her feet off the sofa to let Jeanette sit down. She finally finished her sprite with a loud sigh of relief. Roberta sat, staring intently at Jeanette, which she finally noticed after a moment of peering out of the corner of her eye.
"Something on my face?" Jeanette asked.
"Don't you notice anything?" Roberta asked.
Jeanette sat for a moment. "What?"
Roberta hopped up on her feet and held up her hands, indicating for Jeanette to look at her.
"Oh, you're wearing your new dress!" Jeanette said.
"Well?" Roberta asked.
"Well what?" Jeanette asked. "It looks nice, I like it."
"You do?" Roberta asked.
"Sure, it goes nicely with your coloring." Jeanette said.
"Well thanks for noticing!" Roberta said, half sarcastically, as she stormed off for the bedroom.
Jeanette was growing increasingly confused by Roberta's unusual behavior, but before she had a chance to do anything else, Roberta stepped back into the living room, this time in her new top and shorts.
"Okay, now what about this?" Roberta asked.
"That looks good too." Jeanette said.
"I thought it was very flattering when I tried it on." Roberta pressed.
"It is," Jeanette agreed, "it complements your shape nicely."
"That's what I thought too." Roberta said.
"It really shows off how toned your arms are too." Jeanette said.
Roberta hadn't thought of that. "You really think so?"
Jeanette nodded. "Yeah. I think you made some nice choices."
"Thanks." Roberta said in relief.
Jeanette thought nothing more of Roberta's impromptu fashion show, as she placed a hand on her forehead. "What a day. I feel like I'm on a high that I can't come down from."
Roberta sat back down on the sofa next to Jeanette, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I think I know something that would help calm you down."
The two chipettes looked into each other's eyes for a moment.
"You know something?" Jeanette began, "I think I know too."
Roberta slowly leaned in closer, intending on kissing Jeanette, until she ruined the moment for her.
"A bubble bath." Jeanette said.
"What?!" Roberta blurted out.
"A bubble bath," Jeanette said, "a nice, long bubble bath... maybe a little aroma therapy too... that would be so relaxing."
Jeanette rose from the sofa and started for the bedroom.
"Well, do you need any help?" Roberta asked.
"With what?" Jeanette asked.
"In the bath?" Roberta asked.
Jeanette chuckled, "I'm grown up, Robbie, I think I'm capable of getting into the bathtub myself."
Jeanette stepped into the bedroom, and then into the bathroom. Roberta fell off the sofa onto her knees and let out a loud wail of frustration. Her attempts to revitalize the romance between her and Jeanette have continually backfired. Trying to bond over a shared interest turned out to be a bust, and going with a new look ended on a sour note as well. At this point, Roberta was beginning to think she wasted her money on buying that relationship book, but there were still other chapters to go, and perhaps there were still other efforts she can make to try to capture Jeanette's interest again.
