face appear paler.
“We don't have to,” William resisted. “We can cuddle. If you don't want to talk
that's fine.”
Tears formed in her eyes.
“William—” she started but couldn't finish her sentence.
William sat on the edge of the bed, placing a hand on her thigh.
“I—” she started again but couldn't finish the sentence.
“It's okay,” William reassured her. “You'll get through it.”
William didn’t know what she was going through. But if Emily had shown him anything
in the last five years, it was her resilience and her refusal to take no for an
answer.
“Do you know what it’s like to work hard?” she asked. “Do everything right? Do
everything you're supposed to? And then—” She wiped her eyes. “And then, nothing.
You realize that your dreams are further away than
you expected.” She placed her hand on top of his. “That what you worked for wasn't
obtainable after all.”
“I don't,” William responded, not lying. He rarely thought of the future. Most
days, he only concentrated on what was right in front of him.
“I figured,” she said. “I don't see a way forward. I may as well get married and
start popping out babies.”
During the last conversation William had with his grandmother, she had told him
about a beautiful baby.
“It seems like that is what it's going to take to make my life feel complete,” she
told him. “Maybe I was focusing on the wrong thing. I shouldn't have been so driven
by work and school. I missed what was right in front of me.”