Disclaimer: All characters are property of Jenny Han novelist of Shug. This is a piece on what could have happened after the novel ended.
Grace awoke with a start, an alcoholic-induced nightmare perhaps. Her head was spinning as she tried lift her head off the bed. She shifted her hand instinctively to seek comfort from her companion.
Only he wasn’t there.
She had slept and awoke alone again. In her drunken stupor she was surprised she made it to bed safely. She gazed at the empty side of the bed, reminiscing on times where she’d wake up to Billy’s sleeping face; completely relaxed, mouth slightly agape and the soft snoring he made as the world went on without him.
She curled up on his side of the bed, feeling the emptiness weighing down on her shoulders. She hadn’t seen that sleeping face in a long while. He was always working in Atlanta, rarely did he come home to see her or the girls. When he did all they did was argue and fight, and Billy would leave, probably back to Atlanta, leaving her to sleep by herself again.
Stretching her limbs, she tried to fight the head rush that came with her getting off the bed. Her head swirled with memories of what happened.
She wasn’t proud of how it went.
She could’ve done handled it better.
Could’ve, would’ve, should’ve. There wasn’t anything she could do now with Billy so far from her both physically and emotionally.
She wondered where it all fell apart.
But that wasn’t something she could think about now, it was time to go to work:
The sun was rising.
