Tango In The Night Part 1: Big Love

If I Could Turn The Page

Hollywood Hills, California
Monday, April 13, 1987
(12:00 pm)
********************

"So she told me not to come back until I figured out how to talk to her without being abusive."

Mick Fleetwood sat cross-legged on Stevie's green velvet sectional sofa, looking like he had not done much sleeping - or bathing - in a few days. Stevie walked into the living room holding two cups of tea and two dog treats, and handed him a cup of tea before placing the treats on the carpet for her dogs, placing Ginny's extra close to her so she could sniff for it, her eyesight almost totally gone since turning sixteen. She sat down with an audible sigh.

"You realize, Mick, that I'm siding with Sara here," Stevie said. She curled up on her pillow on the sofa, dressed in Addidas pants and a white t-shirt, her long blonde curls twisted loosely into a clip and her glasses on, looking nothing like Stevie Nicks. "If she went so far as to use the term 'abusive' with you..."

"Oh, she's just being dramatic," Mick said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I simply came home and attempted to get into bed and..."

Stevie cut him off, holding up a hand a little too close to his face, hating that this new medication seemed be messing with her depth perception. "Stop! Mick! For Christ sake, I am not about to sit here in my own home and listen to your story about getting into bed with my friend who you left me for! Good God, man, do you have any sense left in your head or have you blown all your common sense up your nose?"

"Jesus, Stevie!" Mick recoiled towards the corner of the sofa, looking surprised and hurt. "I wasn't going to get graphic on you! I was going to say I went into bed and put my arms around her and tell her I loved her, but instead she got all upset because of what time it was and the fact that I'd been out drinking...and she saw white on the tip of my nose so she was on me about that and..." He sank completely back into the corner of the sofa, took a sip of his tea, and looked down into the mug then as if it contained all of the answers to the mysteries of life. He said, "I'm sorry, Stevie. I know it's awkward when I mention my relationship, but you always told me I could come to you...you told me that yourself."

"I meant come to me if you were ready to stop using, Mick." Stevie had called him a few days after she'd returned home from Betty Ford in November, and they'd talked about Thanksgiving coming up and how Sara was angry with him for using so much, and Stevie had insisted that if ever he decided he wanted to get clean, she would be there to support him. She sat back against the opposite corner of the sofa, took a sip of her tea. "So what happened after you climbed into bed with Sara and she rebuffed your cuddly mood?" Do not think about all the times Mick crawled into your bed on the Rumors tour and cuddled up with you from behind and make jokes about how you're so tiny you'd fit into the pocket of his pajamas. He chose one of your best friends over you right after that...remember?

"She woke up, told me she could smell the alcohol a mile away, and told me to get into the shower if I wanted to get into bed with her," Mick explained. "I told her I was too tired and to take me as I am, and she said, 'As what you are? You mean an addict and a drunk?' So I flew off the handle and said...a few unkind things. The whole fight ended with me gathering my things from a heap on the floor of the stairwell because she told me to get the fuck out...and she threw an ashtray that said 'Aloha' on it with a picture of a coconut on it at my head on my way out the door...but I ducked."

Stevie shook her head and said, "Mick...did it ever occur to you that maybe all Sara was trying to do was to politely tell you to get cleaned up so you could come back to bed all fresh and smelling good...maybe sobered up a bit from a hot shower...so you could cuddle up with her and she'd actually enjoy it?" She thought back to the Rumors tour again, this time remembering how he'd never have his stage outfits dry-cleaned and would wind up smelling awful after working up a sweat and drinking copious amounts of liquors during a show.