December 24th [COMPLETED]

16. The Wrong Mix

A/N: this chapter is the first pass at what became Chapter 8 of Dec. 24th.

There were two men waiting for them when George pulled the car into the garage. Sydney got out of the passenger seat and started ordering them to unload. George left the three of them behind and headed inside, cursing the heat of the city, the heat of the underground car garage, and the even warmer interior of Concept Records headquarters.

George was dying for a breath of fresh, crisp air, a hint of fall, anything other than the endless sun of Los Angeles. But she was between projects. She had nowhere else to go and George hated that fact.

She didn't have long to dwell on whether she hated the warm weather (she had just gotten back from North Carolina in the summer, no problem: she had handled Australia in their summer, again, no problem) or whether she just hated Los Angeles. The elevator dinged at the top story of the building and the doors leading into Julien's office stood waiting for her.

Just as George approached Flora's desk to say a halfhearted good morning to her dad's secretary, the doors of Julien's office burst open and Felix came stomping out. The first thing George noticed was the anger in his eyes, the second was the length of his hair as his hand ran through his curls. It had gotten so long since she had seen him at Ali's place in Upstate New York.

"It's crap, Julien! It's crap and you know it!"

Felix's manager, Benji, followed him out into the lobby, Julien keeping his distance as Felix's voice filled the room.

"Felix, I'm sorry-"

"You're sorry. You're sorry? Are you kidding me? Julien, this is a disaster! You need to fix this!"

Felix's eyes flicked over for George, registered her existence then returned to the crisis at hand. Benji, always cool-headed, tried translating Felix's cries of indignation into a speech better suited for an office space.

"Mr. Burns, I hope you can see why my client would be so upset-"

"I'm not upset, Benji, I'm freaking pissed!" Felix corrected.

George hadn't seen Felix this angry since they had broken up and now he was directing it at her father. George stepped between Felix and Julien without a second thought, stretching her hands out in both directions to keep them from each other.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! What's going on here?"

George looked to Julien first and then to Felix.

"The mix," Felix said, his voice almost cracking. "It's crap. Complete crap!"

Felix flung the accusation over George's head to Julien. George tried Benji's approach.

"Felix, we can fix the mix. Dad, who did you send the mix to? Call them up, we can get this sorted-"

"He sent it to McMillan," Felix cut in.

George stepped from between Julien and Felix to Felix's side in a second.

"You sent the mix to McMillan?!" George echoed, her indignation matching Felix's.

"We didn't have anyone else on hand at the moment and-"

George cut Julien off before he could offer up more excuses. They both knew why he hadn't sent the mix to her but that was no reason why he had to send it to McMillan of all people.

"And you thought McMillan was a good idea?!"

"The vocals, the riffs, even the harmonies. They're gone! Completely gone. You can't hear anything, you can barely understand what I'm saying!"