stories from the city; damon albarn

46-

Chloe Erlich and Ewan McGregor had walked away from their seats with Justine Frischmann and Damon Albarn rather quickly, avoiding any to all conversation with those around them, and rather unexpectedly- make their way back to their hotel first. Instead of going to mingle, which they'd been doing for most of the day.  Similarly to how the couple had walked away from a year of trouble and pain that neither of them had ever really anticipated in the beginning.

Their relationship had developed over the past year. It had been stressful, they couldn't lie. Having to deal with separation as Ewan went to film Velvet Goldmine and Chloe was touring with a few different bands, while working on her book and occasionally doing a few photoshoots for various celebrities.

They dealt with being apart, and then being too close to one another. That had happened when he had joined Chloe on her father's tour for a couple weeks. Sharing a small bunk with your boyfriend for a few days isn't all that great. Especially when you're surrounded by your family, and constantly boarding planes and whatnot.

They had been together for nearly two years at that point. Chloe was 28 and he was around 25.
It was funny, most people thought she was younger than him. But in reality she was around three years older than him. Not that it mattered anyways. It wasn't an insane age gap.

But, Chloe was sort of maturing. So was Ewan in a sense.

Both of them wanted the same things- they wanted to settle down, have a house somewhere that wasn't her father's place of residence. They wanted peace. They wanted a break.

Both of them were somewhat tired of the public eye, but both of their jobs required it so heavily.

And when it came to looking for houses, that was a whole other problem. Chloe was from London- born and raised. Ewan was from Scotland. He needed to be in LA and New York for work a lot. That was at least 4 places they needed to be.

To be honest- Chloe already had a studio in London with a few bedrooms that could be utilized. And Ewan had a place in Scotland. But neither of these were home bases.

So they'd been looking at homes in LA.

Which had also raised the question of "how big/how much space did they need?" Which was turning out to be a doozy. As they wanted a spare bedroom for a guest, and then extra bedrooms for the possibility of children. Something the two had been discussing more and more frequently. Seeing as they were both stable adults who loved one another.

Their poor realtor.

She was struggling to compute half of the things they wanted and also understood they didn't know what they wanted either. And also knew that there really wasn't a budget either. So she was scraping up a ton of options and just waiting for them to slash and burn them.

But back to the topic of children- that was a development that had become more literal as they were having a baby. Well. Would be. They'd gone through the surrogacy route since neither Chloe or Ewan could really stop working at the moment. Besides it was their baby. It had their genes and everything. Didn't matter how they got there.

But they were both attempting to stop smoking and whatnot, just trying to see how long they could last if she had chosen to physically have a baby.

It was like a wager between them. Kind of silly.

Coming back to the present, Chloe felt bad for Damon Albarn. Anyone could tell that he felt and looked stuck in his current relationship. That they weren't exactly moving forwards, but were honestly stuck in time.

Justine and Damon weren't maturing. It was like they were souring in fact.

It was going to hurt for the two of them when they broke up. She could tell. They were attached but not in the healthy way. It gave her a headache and had sullied her mood by the time she and Ewan had reached their own hotel suite.

"I still feel bad for him." She said out-loud

"Who?" Ewan asks, slipping his jacket off

"Damon." She says "He's going to have a hard time when they break up."

"Maybe they won't. They've been together for so long." He says happily

"You're a romantic. But I can just tell that they're miserable. But won't tell the other."

"How?" He says raising an eyebrow

She sighs "I've known Damon for a long time now and he used to be sort of fascinated by Justine and pulled towards her nature, her being, her existence..." Chloe trails off before continuing "Now it's like that's been replaced with his demand for well,"

"Heroin." He finishes her sentence before plopping down onto the sofa, pulling her down onto his lap. "It'll be okay. Honestly. Damon has a support system."

"Does he?"

He sighs again "I'll never be able to understand why you care so much for him. Really. He's treated you like shit for years."

"I have good memories and I don't like wishing ill on people."

"That might be true." He says trailing off before resting his head on her shoulder. The two sit in silence.

"How badly do you want a cigarette right now?" He asks

"Fuck you." She quips

The two laugh, snickering a little before turning their talk to other things. "How's that language going to fare around a baby?" He teases

"Like you don't have a mouth McGregor. I hear it everyday."

He rolls his eyes playfully as she stands up, stretching herself out and turning to look at him, studying his expression slowly, a smile spreading across her face "I'm very glad I met you. Even more glad I went to the Trainspotting set that day."

"So am I."

"I love you."

"I love you too." He says, standing up and going to kiss her. She kisses back softly and the two stand there, bodies pressed up against one another for a few minutes.

"You ready to see your movie?" She says briskly, heading off to the closet and fishing through for one of the gowns her sister had sent her.

He shrugs "I think so. It's one of my best."

He didn't really like talking about his own acting or his work in a prideful manner, so it surprised her that he had. Ewan was usually a humble person and that meant he wouldn't detail his performances.

But for once he had. Which meant he had to be feeling pretty damn good about it. And that made her happy.