Chapter Text
She never thought in her lifetime that she would move away from California. But then again, a lot of things in her life hadn’t worked out the way she had originally planned.
It had already been six months since she had picked up her life and got on a plane with her son Apollo to move across the country, fresh on the heels of divorce. Divorce was such a dirty word, one that elicited pity and carefully calculated reactions, and Gwen was over it. She hated living in the same city as her ex-husband, even though it was Los Angeles and quite large. She hated the fact that she left her parents behind in Anaheim to start this new journey. It all happened so quickly that she barely had time to process everything before she found herself on a plane and through the doors of her new apartment.
The job promotion truly wasn’t one that she could have passed up, either. Gwen took pride in the fact that she was regarded as one of the most creative associate designers at LUSH GROUP, one of her all-time favorite fashion labels. The company had various offices in larger cities throughout the US, and may different divisions and labels underneath them. Though she was already working in one of the main offices in LA as an associate designer, the opportunity arose in Atlanta for Gwen to take on a junior designer role that could eventually lead to a senior designer role at headquarters in New York City. She was thrilled over the thought of one day being able to have full autonomy over releasing collections and deciding final approval, but in the meantime she knew she had to work her way up into that position. They were hard jobs to get, but a move to the east coast would definitely bode well for her on that front.
Life wasn’t so bad in Atlanta, either. She had settled in, and even though it got unbearably hot at times, she enjoyed the fact that there was less traffic and friendly people. Southern accents were becoming the norm throughout her day, and Apollo seemed to be adjusting well to daycare. Plus, her ex-husband was three thousand miles away in a completely different time zone. She really couldn’t have asked for anything more.
“Gwen!” someone called out all of a sudden, pulling her back to reality. Her head snapped over to look at the person standing and hovering over her low cubicle wall whom she immediately recognized as Lizzy, the executive assistant to the senior designer that she worked for, and also her friend.
“Lizzy!” Gwen called back in an equally excited tone to mimic her, giggling a little.
“Grace needs your edits on these sketches by the end of next week so she can FedEx them to the New York Office,” she said, handing a portfolio of various sketches to the her. Her hand grasped them immediately as she began sifting through them. God, she couldn’t wait to be the one that got to create all of these on her own one day.
“That I can manage,” Gwen said with a smile, as she spread them out on the large surface adjacent to her desk. She snatched her glasses from her keyboard and turned her back to Lizzy to begin examining them. She delicately held her pencil as she added shading to the sketches to get a better idea of how the pieces would pop and work together. She was fully aware that Lizzy was still standing behind her after she had been at it for a few minutes, she had gotten lost in her sketches again, and she slowly turned in her chair and raised an eyebrow at her.
“Was there something else doll?” she asked, a smirk playing across her features.
“Yes, I am also here to inform you that you have plans tonight!”
“Plans?” Gwen questioned, raising her eyebrow again. “What kind of plans?” Her tone was incredulous, mostly because Lizzy always seemed like that one that was trying to get her into some kind of trouble.
“Well I told you my husband works at the radio station, right? There’s this huge music festival tonight and he scored us front row VIP and you absolutely must come. It’s a requirement and a condition of your employment, actually,” Lizzy teased, which cause Gwen to laugh.
“Music festival? Oh geez. I’m sure my 2 1/2 year old son would love that,” she rolled her eyes, indicating that there was no way in hell she would have been able to find someone to watch Apollo in that amount of time. Besides, she hadn’t left Apollo alone with a babysitter since before the divorce, and she wasn’t sure if that was something that she would even consider doing at this point.
“That’s why we’ve arranged for you to leave Apollo with our babysitter tonight!” Lizzy gleefully replied. This girl really did think of everything. “Come on, Gwen. Our sitter is fantastic and I’m sure my sons would love to have someone to play with tonight. I promise it will be a good time. Sydney is coming, too, and like I said it’s basically a requirement that you come with us!”
Gwen sighed, going back and forth in her mind about everything. She really was turning into an old lady these past six months - she never went out, she was always hyper-focused on Apollo and his needs, and she was getting a little stir crazy. Plus, Lizzy was a great time and Sydney was the other junior designer at the Atlanta office that she got along pretty well with. As if on cue, Sydney strolled up to Gwen’s desk and looked between the two of them.
“Have you convinced her to come yet?” Sydney asked, a huge grin on her face. She took one look at Gwen and her expression faltered. “Oh come on, Gwen! You never go out with us! When’s the last time you did something for yourself? I mean, Lizzy took care of childcare and everything…” she was nagging her on. Gwen was double teamed, and outnumbered at that.
She huffed a little. “What -kind- of music festival is this?” she asked pointedly, already feeling as if she knew the answer.
“Well…” Lizzy started, looking at Sydney and then back to Gwen.
“Country music, I see,” Gwen said, laughing a bit and shaking her head.
“Gwen Stefani don’t you dare knock country music. You were over here belting out Shania Twain last week and I fully believe you are more into it than you’re letting us believe!”
“I seriously doubt that!” she laughed, as Lizzy pulled a sheet of paper out of her pocket.
“There’s at least 20 huge name artists playing this festival Gwen, you have to know someone,” she started, as she began reading the list. “Carrie Underwood…? Florida Georgia Line? George Strait? Blake Shelton?” she named a few more, but all Gwen could do was shake her head in response.
“Nada,” she replied, shrugging her shoulders. “Does Taylor Swift count?”
Lizzy and Sydney both gave a look to one another that more than answered Gwen’s impending question. “Hooookay then, guess that’s a no,” she said, laughing a bit.
“There is unlimited free alcohol and live music. What else do you need?” Sydney asked.
She thought about it for a moment. The guilt came to her as she thought about leaving Apollo with a sitter she had never met, but Lizzy was a very trustworthy friend and she did trust her with her child. Sydney would have held it against her for the rest of time if she had passed up the opportunity that Lizzy’s husband scored for them. Her eyes fell on the sketches that she was supposed to be working on, she scrunched her face a bit, and looked back over to the two very excited and overly hopeful girls she had come to call her friends over the last few months.
“Fine. You win. What time do we have to leave?”
——
Five hours later, Gwen found herself at the doorstep of Lizzy’s home with an adorable Apollo bouncing on her hip. Lizzy was quick to usher the two of them inside, and introductions were made all around the room between Lizzy’s husband, the sitter, and her kids. Her nerves were at an all time high but she kept reminding herself that it was going to have to happen eventually, she was going to leave Apollo in someone else’s care and that had to be okay. Lizzy grabbed her purse with one hand, her husband’s hand in the other, and pointed out the front door. “Sydney is going to meet us there, so that means it’s time to go!” she said excitedly, as she kissed her two kids on the head and began to walk out the door.
Apollo was sitting on the ground with some toy cars around him and he seemed to be perfectly content and occupied. Gwen bit her lip and kneeled down to his level, ruffling his hair back as she kissed her baby on the forehead. “Momma loves you, Pollo,” Gwen whispered, as she found it hard to physically tear herself away and force herself out the door. Once she closed the door to Lizzy’s home, she heard the sitter lock it behind her and she took a deep breath.
“Aww, come on, mom, it’ll be okay,” Lizzy reassured her, squeezing her hand a bit. “I promise he will have fun tonight and he is in great hands.” Gwen nodded, and the three of them walked over to the large truck sitting in the driveway.
“I just haven’t left him alone with anyone since…” Gwen began, but changed direction in the middle of her sentence. She wasn’t going to let him invade her thoughts tonight. “Since I moved here, you know? It’s still weird being this far from California.”
It wasn’t soon before long that they arrived at the outdoor music park and met up with Sydney at the gates. Hugs were had all around and as soon as they got through security, the four of them wound up at the open bar in the VIP tent areas. Gwen took a glass of wine, sticking out like a sore thumb in a sea of beers, but she didn’t care. That wine was going to taste amazing to her tonight.
“Cheers, cheers, cheers!” Sydney exclaimed, throwing back a few swigs of the beer as she began swaying to whatever music was the current background noise. Gwen started sipping on her wine, and soon she was taking a second glass as they made their way out into the general areas. Since Gwen had no idea anything that was going on, or even who all was playing, she left the decisions up to the other three as to what stages to head to and where to go.
“Blake Shelton is such a hottie, we definitely need to make our way over to his stage to get a close spot,” Lizzy commented, as her husband shot her a look. “Sorry, hubby, I still love you but that’s the truth!” Gwen giggled a bit at the two of them as she watched them together. They were such an interesting couple because Lizzy was this force of nature and overly excited person, which was a stark contrast to the quiet, reserved, barely-said-two-words-since-we’ve-been-here type of guy her husband was. Opposites attract, was the best she could guess. But they were adorable, and it secretly made her long for something like that again.
“They’re sickening, aren’t they?” Sydney whispered to Gwen jokingly, eyeing the two of them.
“Yeah, they are. But you’ve got to admit they’re pretty cute together,” Gwen shrugged with a smile, taking another long sip of her wine.
Little did she know then how much that one decision she made to join her friends that night would change her life.