Page 38 of Between Takes
He shook his head. “It’s not that. I don’t want them to know I had a problem.” He stared at me, his eyes imploring.
The size of the secret he was asking me to keep dawned on me. I got it: the press were already speculating; he didn’t want it confirmed. I was the only one standing between him and a rabid mob of gossip rags. I nodded my understanding.
“What about Sherry?”
“Yeah, tell her.”
A to-do list began forming in my head, and I was pretty sure I couldn’t wait to set it in motion.
“Uh, Mona?”
I glanced at him, tilting my head with a silent “what?”
“When I said I don’t trust myself to throw it all out?”
I nodded.
“Would you come home with me? Do it for me?”
“Are you going to tell me where your hidden stash is?”
His eyes widened in surprise, but his nod was swift.
“Okay.” I nodded. “Let’s go.”
That night I cleared close to fifty bottles of hard liquor from Shaun’s flat, trailer and the equipment stores. The call to Sherry was one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do, but she wasn’t remotely surprised. She was, however, thankful, because Shaun had admitted his problem, but also because I was there to keep him straight.
The magnitude of the task ahead of me hadn’t fully sunk in until that moment. I was it, the barrier between him and going off the rails again. That was utterly fucking terrifying. What if I couldn’t get this growing attraction under control? What happened when the show wrapped and we parted ways? If I wasn’t careful, I’d get so invested the worry would eat me alive. I didn’t think I could stop myself from feeling responsible for him, but I had to try. We both had to survive the next few months with our sanity intact.
