stories from the city; damon albarn

1998

Damon had been touring nonstop and had decided to leave Chloe Erlich alone, after that one phone call in 1997. Call it guilt, but he felt bad. He was pining after a girl who was in love with someone else, and had a fucking baby. Blur felt like it was nearly dead, but Damon kept writing. He had too much to say about his relationships over the years, primarily Justine and had heeded the advice Chloe had given him.

However, what he didn't expect was to meet someone along the way. That was new to him. Surprisingly enough, he was introduced to an artist at Radio 4. Her name was Suzie. And for the first time in a long time, Damon felt like he could be open to someone again.

He didn't have to hold back his sexuality, his being, his personality. Anything.

He just existed.

It felt good. Honestly, it was motivating him to be alive again, and eventually he stopped using heroin. He didn't need it to function anymore. He was clean and could write comprehensibly without it.

Even more so, the attitude of his band had improved. It made him prideful again to be in Blur. While it was nowhere near like it had been in 1995, the thrill of the battle of Britpop occurring, it was still good. Damon was relevant and prideful, but in a manner he could handle.

And he had someone new to love on.

Across the sea, Chloe Erlich and Ewan McGregor tied the knot, deciding to go for some more official terms. There wasn't a big wedding or any of that. Just a small ceremony at her family estate. Family and assorted friends.

Damon was a bit miffed he hadn't been invited, and Liam Gallagher had been. He didn't get that. And the only reason he'd found out that they'd gotten married was through Avery- who had called after getting back from it.

Avery, someone Chloe had hated, got to be Liam Gallagher's plus one. Meanwhile he hadn't even been invited.

Whatever.

He was sure the Hollywood couple was enjoying the LA sun more than he ever could.

Ewan McGregor had wrapped on filming for The Phantom Menace, and had even managed to get on the cover of Vanity Fair, in a shoot that had been managed and shot by Chloe. He had actually insisted that the magazine do that, as he claimed it made him more comfortable with the camera.

But really it was an excuse to take his family to work with him more than normal.

The article touched on Ewan as an actor, but also the problems and controversies that swirled the actor, more recently- it had been over his comments about the American film industry and how he felt more or less gutted by Danny Boyle, John Hodge and Andrew MacDonald had chosen Leonardo DiCaprio for their upcoming film The Beach, rather than McGregor.

Chloe had heard him rant about it nearly 50,000 times, seeing as it came down to financial decisions, as apparently they knew DiCaprio would make them more money than Ewan ever would. And they would pay him far more than they'd ever pay Ewan.

Money was something that kept coming up in their relationship, as Ewan felt slightly odd that they mainly lived off of his wife's trust fund and money she made from her father her entire life. He didn't like that there were millions given to them, and an endless life line of support that he hadn't necessarily contributed to.

It made him feel guilty in a sense, that his wife had paid for majority of their houses, and everything. Sometimes even his plane tickets. And she was the one who did everything when he wasn't there.

It had been one of the reasons he'd been so excited to take on Star Wars. He was getting paid ten times more than he was for Velvet Goldmine, which was ten times more than he'd been paid for Trainspotting.

Obviously- Ewan wasn't a starving actor, especially when his wife was a billionaire's relative and all. But it didn't make him feel the best knowing that his stability would come no where near to what Maxis Erlich had given his kids.

And in all honesty, he'd been turning down projects that he thought didn't pay enough as of late, and it was irritating to Chloe. She loved him, but she couldn't wrap her head around it. They were stable and were always going to be. These had been films with excellent writing- award material and he didn't care.

It was money.

At this point, Chloe wanted to go to London if he was going to be this picky about the jobs he took because in her defense, he could turn jobs down from their home in London.

They had barely even lived in it.

It had been a wedding gift from Maxis, and it was in Notting Hill of all places. How ironic. How beautiful. And Chloe desperately wanted to go home, but couldn't stand to leave Ewan in LA, let alone deprive him of May.

But other than that, the couple was fine, and more in love with one another than before. Sure, they occasionally had their fights- whether it be about something stupid Ewan had said to a reporter, or about a misplaced blanket.

In fact, for his birthday Chloe had got him a new bike, knowing how he lived for riding in his free time. He tried getting her to ride that damn thing and she nearly cursed him out on that ride.

So, the Erlich-McGregor household was doing fine. Besides, they had a baby who was walking around and babbling like a freak of nature. She'd taken after Ewan, the same thick dirty blonde hair and all.

And now they were having another kid.