mamma mia | jeremy jordan

26. good/great

Ana cleaned up her dining room table as Ben left, a sad kiss lingering on her lips and his cheek. He promised he would call her later on, to tell her if he had gone to Jeremy's or not.

She subconsciously washed the dishes, put them away, and fell into her couch. Ana gripped a pillow tightly to her chest and curled herself up into a ball. She felt relieved, relieved that she had finally talked to Ben about something weighing so heavily on her shoulders. Yet, somehow, she still felt a part of herself was empty.

She had no idea what it could be considering she had both Laura and Ashley, Ben- her boyfriend- and, now, Jeremy again. Ana had a job, an apartment, everything she was always anxious about having and keeping in her life. It was all right there.

And she still she wasn't whole.

Eventually, she fell asleep, tears still slipping from her eyes and the television screen black. What woke her hours later was a phone call. She answered groggily, having had to pull herself from a deep sleep and trudge across the room.

"Hello?"

"I went." Ben sighed shakily.

Ana ceased from yawning and straightened up, "Oh?"

"Yeah," Ben laughed somewhat, as if it were silly that his voice was wavering, "I stood outside his door for maybe half an hour and then knocked and I've been here ever since."

"How'd it go?" Ana sat down at her kitchen counter, running a hand through her messy hair.

Ben paused before responding, "Good. Really good. He's doing good, like you said. I mean, it's so good to see him and, and he's just-"

"Good?" Ana giggled.

Ben chuckled at the word, "No, great."

"That's... great. See? I told you. You should listen to me more," Ana teased.

"I know"

A beat of silence swapped between their lines.

"Well," Ana began, "I'm gonna go. I have laundry to do and my bedroom is a pigsty."

"Okay," Ben replied, "Have a good day at work tomorrow. Love you."

"You, too."

—

The next morning, Ana went to work. At her new job, she was able to actually photograph people and edit the photos afterwards, not grab coffees for them. It was mainly senior and wedding photos, and booking appointments for them took up most of her time actually in the office.

That day, she was on the phone with a customer for nearly two hours, attempting to find a proper time for them to come and see samples of graduation photos she'd taken. Ana tried to explain to the customer that she could email her samples to them, but they said they didn't trust the internet.

So, they insisted on coming in.

Ana huffed as she hung the phone up. She leaned back in her computer chair, stress-massaging her temples. Mrs. Fray had turned the small studio room into an office for Ana, complete with a desk area facing the rest of the room. Two chairs were set on the opposite side of the desk for customers. The ring lights and studio equipment had been folded up and put in the closet and were only taken out for appointments.

Ana was, simultaneously, working on the website for Mrs. Fray's photo business. It was not that much difficult because Ana had been trained on computers in college, but she was still struggling on decisions. She decided to make the background of the website look like the room the business came out of: light blue with white clouds. She did, in fact, use the photo of Mrs. Fray for the logo, and it looked lovely. Ana was beyond stressed.

Ana lifted her head as Mrs. Fray shuffled into the room. "You look tired," she chuckled as she took a seat opposite Ana.

"Don't get me started," Ana propped her head up on her hand. "I've been working nonstop since I started, plus I've been trying to help my friend get better with his life, and I've been attempting to stay part of a healthy relationship with my boyfriend, all the while trying to stay sane." 

Mrs. Fray's eyes widened, "Well, I shouldn't have even came in here."

Ana laughed, "I'm sorry, Mrs. Fray. I don't mean to complain to you, I'm just beyond exhausted."

"How many appointments do you have this week?"

"One," Ana replies upon looking at her calendar, "and it's just the man who insists on coming in to see photos I've taken."

Mrs. Fray thought for a moment, "Why don't you take the week off?"

Ana quickly insisted otherwise, "Oh, I couldn't do that to you. What if you get swamped with a bunch of customers or-?"

"Ana, don't even start with me. I've been able to handle myself for the past ten years since my husband died. I think I'll be alright for one week. It would be okay with me anyways because if you take off, I don't have to pay you. However, I would you to work a teeny tiny bit on the website and, if you do, you let me know so I can pay you for that."

Ana sighed, considering it before she sat up straight, "I'm only going to say yes to you because I never do anything for myself."

Ana thanked Mrs. Fray before packing her laptop and office work into her bag and leaving. She went straight home, where she kicked off her work flats and put on a pair of slippers. Ana was stubborn and, instead of taking the rest of the day off and working on it first thing in the morning, she opened the website. 

She was struggling to decide which photos to display on the website: it was between a graduation party she had just photographed or photos from her prior to working with Mrs. Fray. Ana soon realized that if she wanted to give people the impression of the company being a friendly, creative outlet, then she'd need to take new photos. 

So, she dialed Jeremy's number and agreed to meet him at their cafe in the morning.