stories from the city; damon albarn

75-

"It's not that big of a deal" was all Damon Albarn could say to her as she strode around his studio in West London. "Honestly, fuck your PR team for not getting ahead of it, and that instagram page. You should fire them, mine are better anyways."

She looks up from her phone to shoot him a glare, watching him tinker with his piano as if the situation were nothing. He went back to playing within seconds, causing her to get up and storm off.

"Chloe?" He calls, stopping again "Chloe, I was messing with you"

Damon gets up, and then runs after her, pushing his glasses up a little bit, managing to catch her before she ducked downstairs. "Chlo, I'm sorry. Maybe it's just how I cope, but I'm sorry. You know I didn't mean anything by it."

She shoves him off of her and goes down the stairs "Fuck off" Chloe shouts, trying to get further away, only he follows her more.

"The fuck are you doing?" He yells "Why are you getting all weird?"

She turns around, scoffing "Our letters, which have been locked in a safe in my HOUSE, have just been LEAKED, and you seem to think this is a good thing?"

"Everyone can know how much I love you."

"You stupid piece of-" she watches as he comes closer and she shoves him away, growing angry with him, probably for the first time in twenty years. "Do you honestly not see a problem?"

"It's nothing we can't fix."

"Have you even been checking your phone?" She hisses "You forgot, people care about my Dad and they care about YOU."

"And it doesn't help that Ewan is doing press right now" she adds irritatedly, before muttering under her breath "Fucking Star Wars."

Damon frowns "Who cares what anyone else says? I mean, it's what people have thought anyways. And so what if they think you cheated? I'm a cheater, I've got you."

"I'm starting to understand why everyone, including me, hated you."

"But you love me...." Damon says, pouting

"When you're nice" before she can continue, her phone rings, "Hello? How bad is it?" She asks, before stomping off, away from Damon Albarn to talk to her manager.

Damon on the other hand, he sighs and lights a cigarette before plopping down in a chair, reaching for his own phone and scrolling through his messages. See, the people in his life had known about Chloe for as long as he could remember her being there.

To him, the letters were just a part of his life. He was sure that Jamie and practically all of Blur knew about them. Hell, he'd written half of them in this exact studio working on Gorillaz collaborations.

He was sure people had known about them, and weren't as secretive as Chloe liked to believe.

That was another thing that nagged him. Chloe had always wanted them more in the dark than he had. Even thirty some years ago, it was as if she was never actually ready for what their relationship was supposed to be.

And he had waited!

Around twenty years for her!

Twenty!

While she had fallen in and out of love with her socially loved and acceptable husband, and he had received her everything through letters. Her love and lust. Her photos. Everything had been second hand.