Every week before the drug test (which is always randomly announced on the day), Frank is sweating buckets because he’s terrified of false positives. He won’t go near anything with poppyseeds and he’s hypervigilant about having any med changes from his GP documented on hospital records.
So he finds himself bracing every week until the day, and then bracing again until the next day, which would be when he presumes someone would find him if there was an issue.
After him and Mel start seeing each other, she asks what’s on his mind when he just kind of goes into a very braced and stressed stand-by mode, and he reluctantly admits that he maybe has two or so good days per week where he doesn’t actively stress about this. The prospect of another 4+ years of this is daunting, but that’s his life. He ends it with a defeated “I get if this is too much” like Mel’s only concern isn’t his wellbeing. Mel ends up buying a stash of cheaper over-the-counter tests for home, just so if the anxiety gets too high he can do a test-test to see if it all comes back clean.
It helps. It helps a lot. So does being able to just voice the fear to someone who will actually reassure him.
