Hard Stop

Erin catches her mom Claire mid-thrust with her boyfriend and slams the brakes on the whole sordid fling by shipping Claire off to Hard Stop, a seven-day sex-addict boot camp. Claire rolls her eyes at the intake form like it's a bad joke, figures she'll fake-snore through every therapy circle, then slams into the other "patients": Vanessa, who's already eyeing the intern; free-spirited Jasmine, arms crossed and smirking; timid Emily, counting ceiling tiles; and know-it-all Olivia, who treats the clipboard like scripture. Under the therapist's cool stare, the circle starts sharing. Emily admits to taking two strangers off a chat app at once. Vanessa laughs when she tells about bending a college kid over her desk after class. Jasmine describes leaving a frat party smelling like four different colognes and not much else. Even Emily's story about getting pinned by a cop who was supposed to cuff her has the group snorting. Claire listens, throat tight, then blurts out her own kickoff story: a younger version of herself letting her stepfather slide inside while her real mom waits in the next room. Silence, then every head nods like they get it. Seven days later, Claire still knows she'll slip someday, but the exit handshake from the crew feels like backup she might actually use.