Suzie’s House 485 : Up to Snuff

Gene did not much care for Miranda. Not that he really disliked her. Certainly he hated his own father a lot more. Miranda never hit him, rarely said nasty things to him, and sometime even fed him. So she was mostly okay. But still, Miranda was the kind of woman he already knew he couldn’t handle.

He couldn’t be blamed if it took him an extra day to get back to her about the ads. If she really wanted to air them right away, she should have tracked him down instead of making him do it. But if he let it go too long, she’d probably just do whatever she wanted and then the rest of the band would be mad at him.

He knocked on her door.

Vin opened.

“Oh! Um… Miranda?” Gene looked at him with a sinking sense of hope.

“Yeah. Come on in.” Vin stepped back.

“Vin! I’m not presentable.” Miranda sat at her vanity. She had on her usual kind of too-short-for-her-age dress and some sort of goop on her face. She was wiping it off with a little white pad. It couldn’t be the dress she was worried about, so it must be the goop.

“It’s just Gene. Probably about that thing you were just complaining about.” Vin’s eyes twinkled like the whole thing was a big joke.

“Um. About the songs for the ads…” Gene ignored Vin and whatever it was Miranda was doing with her face. Better to just get it over with.

“Oh! Great. So you approve them all?” She beamed.

“No. Not the ones for the nail parlor or for the hardware store. The Majestic Theater, Dotty Dumplings, and the pet groomer are all fine, even through Tracy wrote the one you’re using for The Majestic.”

“The nail parlor and the hardware store?” Miranda stood up and marched to where Gene hovered in the doorway. Even without her high heels, she was a little taller than him still. “Just to be specific, exactly what is wrong with those ads?”

She tried to tower over him. He looked forward to the day when he was taller so she couldn’t intimidate him anymore. Not that he was intimidated now or anything. She didn’t have to force answers out of him. He was glad to give them.

“The problem is who wrote them.” Maybe he’d get in trouble for saying it, but if everyone was going to put him in the middle of all this, then they gotta expect he’d lay it all on the line.

“I have no idea who wrote which songs. I just go by what works best.”

“Well, you better get it straight because this isn’t going away. Tracy thinks it’s a sell out. Bruce thinks it’s great. Every time you use one that Tracy wrote you’ll get an argument. Every time you use Bruce it’ll be fine. In fact, if you use too many of Tracy’s then Bruce will get mad even if Tracy doesn’t. So use Bruce. Just use him.”

“Oh for Heaven’s sake!” Miranda slammed a flat palm to her forehead and closed her eyes like she was in pain.

“Here.” He handed her a paper that had been folded a bunch of times and traveled in his pocket for a couple of days. Tempting as it was to just slink away, Gene stood firm. Everyone counted on him doing a good job, so he’d just stand here and let her yell until she was done. “It’s a list of who wrote which song.”

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