Changes

Hey, thanks, again, for the reviews. Much appreciated. Zodia, I know my descriptions need work, this is the first story I have written that I have actually gotten the landscape descriptions pretty good, I'm workin on the characters. For me, it is hard to put what I see in my head on paper, but the more I work on it the better I will be.

Chapter 4 is kinda short but here it is...

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Chapter 4

Jae finished clearing off the table as her brother and his family went out the door, promising to call them later in the next week to go over there for dinner. Thank God, that was over now, she thought to herself as she rinsed all the dishes off and put them into the dishwasher. Family can be such a pain, telling her this and that, how she should be, how she isn’t something that she claims to be. How would they know? She only visited them when she could, between work and, well, and nothing else, she didn’t have a lot of time to just hang around.
Jae slammed the door to the dishwasher in frustration, this was turning out to be something really difficult, she decided. Maybe she should just ask some random person to help her, maybe Mrs. Fischer would. No, that would be taking her back steps instead of forward. Oh my gosh, she thought, I know I’ll ask Chase. He should be able to help me, all I’d have to do is actually ask him, Jae kept thinking as she whipped open her door and walked across the hall. Before she could stop herself she knocked 3 times on his door, and then paced in front of it figuring out what she was going to say.

“Jae, you okay,” Chase asked as he opened the door.
“Yes, I’m fine; I do have a question for you though if you have a moment. I’m sorry to have interrupted you.” Jae replied, still pacing.
“No bother, what’s up?”
“Well see I’ve been thinking about making some changes to myself so that I can be happier and I know we don’t know each other but I don’t know anyone else that I can ask. My family seems to think that I am doing this for all the wrong reasons and they don’t want me to get hurt or whatever other thing they could come up with. So, would you help me?”
“Help . . . you with what exactly?”
“Make changes that would make me more appealing to a man”
“Are you serious?”
“Very.”
“Why, me?”
“I don’t know I just decided that I would ask you, you don’t have to help me if you don’t want to. I just figured you would know what a guy looks for, any type of guy and could help me to make changes.”
“What kind of changes?”
“Like the type of clothes I wear, how to flirt, how to act on a date, I don’t know different kinds.”
“Okay but I don’t know about everything that you would have to know.”
“I know, I need to find a female to help me too.”
“Okay, well let me think about this and I’ll let you know tomorrow.”
“That’s all I can really ask I guess, thanks Chase. I. . . this is very strange since we don’t know each other but I figured it would be better cause then you don’t know stuff about my past and what not that might get into the way of things, ya know?”
“Sure, I’ll stop by tomorrow and give you my answer.”
“Thanks”

Jae turned and went back into her apartment leaving a stunned Chase in the hall. She stepped inside and closed the door, leaning against and wondering if she really just did what she thinks she did. She whirled around and looked through the peep hole, oh God, she did. Chase still stood in the hall staring at her door looking like he thought she was crazy. Which, she thought, I probably am crazy, asking my neighbor of 5 hours if he would help me change myself so a guy would find me appealing. God, I’m a nut case.
Jae pushed away from the door, turned and locked it, then went toward the steps. Might as well go to bed, she thought, she had nothing else to do this Saturday night. Jae stopped at the based at the bottom of the steps and turned to look in her living room. Dark colors, it looked kind of gloomy. The couch set was new, leather, like a dark grey color. The entertainment stand against the wall was top of the line, or so the salesman had told her. There were a few pictures on the wall, which a street artist had done for her when she first moved into this neighbor hood. One was even of herself; he had portrayed her as a beautiful woman. Jae stared at it now, wondering what that guy had seen that she couldn’t. It amazed her, how she looked in that one picture, hair flowing behind her, eyes lighted up with happiness.
She remembered that day. It was sunny and warm with a little breeze off the coast. She had just finished moving in and decided to take a walk to see the neighborhood. Jae had stopped at a few of the shops and picked up some trinkets as she walked. She had, also, stopped at the cute little coffee shop on the corner and was on her way back to the building when this guy came up to her and asked if she would sit for him. Sit for him, she had asked him. Yes, he had said, he wanted to draw her face, she had such a beautiful face and it belonged on paper. So she decided, what the hell, why not. It would be a new experience for her. Plus, he told her she would get the picture that he drew as long as he could draw another of her another time. She agreed quickly. So there she was sitting in the sun with her hair loose, smiling at a stranger while he drew her face. He was magnificent. It was a lovely picture of her, her daddy had even said so.
When he was done, he wouldn’t let Jae see it until she looked around at his other drawings. She fell in love with one of her building and another of the coast. It was beautiful, she had to buy them. She bought 5 drawings and sat and talked to him for an hour. His name was Marty and he lived over on the east end, but came up to the west every weekend to sell his drawings to people in the area. It was his life’s pleasure to draw and sell them to people that would appreciate them. Marty was 26 at the time and worked at a grocery store. He was so pleasant, and nice to chat with that for a few months after that Jae went and talked to him every Saturday.
So now, here she was, staring up at herself and wondering what other people see when they look at her. Some people tell her that she is pretty; some said that she is plain. She just didn’t know which one was true. Her family kept telling her she was beautiful just the way she is, but which way is that? She had no idea who or what she was anymore other than a worker in Illusion Industries. An executive assistant in an office, that’s what she is and was and had been for the past few years. Which was okay with her, but was it okay with everyone else. Did she really need to change herself or did she just have to put herself out there to meet a man. Maybe it was both and maybe it was neither Jae thought as she turned back to the stairs. She would figure it all out tomorrow; maybe get Mrs. Fischer’s opinion on the matter. That would be interesting, Mrs. Fischer’s opinion on what to do to find a man. Ha, a laugh!