December 24th [COMPLETED]

Chapter 6: Twenty-Five

The car ride from the company party to Vivian's house was silent. Not a word was spoken. Instead of voices, the air housed the low murmured tones of news radio coming from up front, and the low hum of the engine as it sped down the highway. George and Felix did not speak.

They sat on opposite sides of the car. George faced west while faced Felix east. Through the mess of buildings that made up downtown, above the hoods of a million cars clogging up the freeway, a freeway still busy even on the night before Christmas, George caught a glimpse, every once in a while, of the ocean. Quick, fleeting glimpses that disappeared just as fast, a quick wave, and then it was gone again.

One of George's hands held up her head to keep it from leaning against the cool glass of the window and messing up the pristine job Vivian's makeup stylists had done to her face. Her hand was all that was keeping George's head from leaning against the glass, all that was keeping her upright as she lived another moment under the unbearable weight of the storm cloud hanging over her head, a cloud George wished would just be done with it already and leave her in peace.

Her other hand lay lifeless in the space between her and Felix. It was half an unconscious decision, half a conscious one. She could feel the cold empty spaces in the gaps between her fingers where Felix's usually went as her hand lay palm side up, all alone, exposed. Both of Felix's hands were in his lap. His eyes were focused on the sight out of his own window, his body turned away from George.

The distance that had grown between them over the last year became a real tangible thing in that car.

Long distance had been harder than George had expected. She had lost that last ounce of youthful optimism and naïveté when it came to love that year. Sure, she had done a six-week stint with Felix on tour at the beginning of the year while he opened for Reeve Keller. And yes, she had negotiated with Concept to let her take part in Felix's festival run in the summer, acting as his official guitarist, a part of his band for three whole weeks. But that was it for them.

Schedules, timing, crises, and everything in between pushed off weekends together, time off scheduled to match up, even possible little meet-ups in airports while he was headed in one way, she in another. They barely managed to grab any time together, times when they just so happened to be in the same place at the same time. But those times were the minority, a minority dwarfed by weeks without seeing each other in person, days with no phone calls because they were on opposite sides of the world, and a chasm that started to grow between them with each missed chance, each new opportunity that took them in two different directions.

For Felix, all he ever talked about during those times, in his long emails updating her, when they got the chance to video chat, was Christmas. If they could make it to Christmas, they would be fine. At Christmas time, they'd be together. She had promised. Christmas with his family. If all else failed, that's where they'd find each other again.

All else did fail. And so did Christmas.

George walked into the annual Concept Christmas party as Felix's date. She was not George Briggs that evening but instead, Georgiana Burns. That was how she was starting to be known among the general public. Firstly as Felix's girlfriend, secondly as Georgiana Burns. Concept had done their job well. Never once had the name George Briggs been even mentioned in the same breath as Georgiana Burns. All was as it should be. And George loathed it with every fiber of her being.

Felix held her hand as they entered the large lobby. The decorations were the same as they had been in previous years, the food as it always was, the Concept Christmas party seemingly a time capsule wrapped up at the end of the evening only to be pulled out again the next year. But George had been to enough of these parties. The wear of time could be seen along the edges.