Out of Focus #SYTYCW15 Top10 Finalist! [COMPLETED]

4| Viral

Seeing she was going to be of no help, Eva left to unload the car. It took three trips to haul in the printing paper, photography supplies and other sundries, the last of which was a box loaded with some film for the vintage camera she'd nabbed for a steal on eBay. A sexy little Japanese model she couldn't wait to take out and capture the world with.

Dropping the film off on her desk, she booted up her laptop and sunk into the large, cushioned work chair; the faux leather a mess of scratches and tears. Eva often imagined the prior owner as a portly woman surrounded by a lot of cats. But it was reasonably comfy and had come at the inarguable price of free, so Eva wasn't about to nitpick over its faults.

First things first, Eva dealt with the boring and menial, shifting through paperwork, bills and accounting records. She was pleased to see a strong and steady profit margin in this month's sales, thanks to Jenelle's strong and effective management. She was more than a beautiful face, Eva thought. Such strength and intellect; a shrewd and savvy businesswoman.

Switching over to her personal bank accounts, Eva transferred a portion of her funds over to savings, set her bottom lip between her teeth and gnawed. At the rate she was crawling, maybe in a year she could approach Declan with a decent offer. Based on property value in the surrounding neighbourhood, Eva guessed Lavender Cottage was worth somewhere in the high seven hundred thousand.

With twenty thousand currently in her savings, she hoped that maybe another twenty, or twenty-five to be safe, would be enough to have him take interest. And for the banks clear her for financing.

One of the many pitfalls to starting over from scratch, Eva mused, was the lack of credit history to fall back on. Speaking of history...tapping a thumb against her keyboard, she hesitated only for few minutes before punching out a brief email.

Jerry: Need an ETA on income tax refund issue-ASAP. Kisses to Mama B.

And before she had a moment to question whetheror not reaching out to Jerry was a good idea, Eva hit send. To take her mindoff the matter, she rolled through the pictures she'd captured last weekend onher memory card, and sorted through the ones she felt held the most promise. Deferringto her notes for the matching secrets and revelations.

Her most favourite of the grouping was of a little girl, about four years old, photographed holding onto her mother's hand, sticky with dripping ice cream. And just out of focus, from the vantage point of the child, was the blurred smiling face of her mother. To contrast and soften the world of black, white and grey, she kept the sweet, candy pink colour of the ice cream.

The message to be inscribed on the plaque: She makes me laugh; and scares away the monsters from under my bed.

She'd call it Absolute Trust.

Between that and at least a dozen others, Eva spent a solid portion of her morning tweaking lighting, colour contrast and other elements of the photos to bring them to where she'd envisioned. Sighing against sore muscles, Eva smiled, pleased with what was proving to be a productive day's work. At this rate, she'd have half a dozen more prints ready for framing, and the rest finished before end of week.

It took the wailing grumble of her protesting stomach for her to realize she'd hadn't touched anything aside from the coffee she'd chugged on the way in. Popping out of her seat, Eva left in search of food and was distracted in her mission by Jenelle's giddy squeal.

"Sweet Coco Chanel!"

"What?" Rounding the counter, Eva tried to take a look at the computer monitor but Jenelle snapped it around and out of view.

A guilty expression wormed across her striking face. "Don't be angry."

"What did you do?"

"Nothing. Well, a little something. Tiny. Smidgin, really." She took a breath, than turned the screen around revealing a shocking white background with a blue header. It took Eva a whole sixty seconds to process, and once the dots connected, her stomach seized like a fist.