Free The Trouble With Before by Portia Moore

wide smile to assure her. “Promise?”
    My gaze goes to his, and he lets out a frustrated sigh and shakes his head.
    “I’m not letting go until you promise,” Willa says sweetly.
    “I promise,” I tell her, feeling butterflies or nausea in my stomach. I’m not sure which it is, but if I had to bet, I’d put money on nausea. “Bye, Willa bear.”
    I literally scurry down the aisle and out of the grocery store. I even leave my cart. When I’m in the car, I let out a relieved breath and realize being here back in Madison is going to be much harder than I thought.

    I SIT IN my car and stare at his number in my phone after I pretty much swallow whole the burger and fries I got from the fast food place down the street from the grocery store. It’s been such a long time since I had his personal number. I hate the way that even after all of these years, my heart still doubles it’s speed and my body still recognizes him. After all the hurt and pain that we caused, I still can’t deny the fact that I loved this man more than anyone else in my entire life. No one has ever made me feel as good as he has, and that’s the reason I can’t call him or see him alone.
    After I came back from college and Chris and I became close again, it took everything in me to be able to be in his house without memories crawling to the forefront of my mind. Will and I were never around each other much though. Whenever Will saw me, he made sure to excuse himself or come up with some urgent errand. As the years passed, we learned to co-exist since he wasn’t going anywhere and my friendship with Chris was one of the most important things in my life. Still, there were moments when my mind would slip to that place, or to the person that we created, who shared the best things of both of us.
    I know that we should talk, that he wants to know why I’m here and probably wants to make sure I don’t want to cause trouble to his now-perfect family. I wish he thought of me as more than a troublemaker, someone who only causes pain and destruction. I used to be more than that to him, but I can’t blame him. It’s been almost a decade since I’ve brought him anything but displeasure.
    I pull up to my house and see the space I parked in earlier is filled with a blue Tahoe. I park on the other side of it. It must be Jack’s. My stomach turns at the thought of him. When I was in high school, I swore he’d be just like the other men who parked themselves temporarily in my mother’s life, getting from her what they wanted and then being ghosts afterward, but Jack stuck around. After only a few months of being together, they went off to be married in Vegas before I left for Aunt Danni’s to have Willa. Evie’s and my relationship has been so rocky since then that I don’t know what type of husband he is, but I’d rather pretend he didn’t exist until I figure out what I’m going to do.
    I pull the key out of my pocket as I make my way up the stairs. I quickly put my key in the lock, and when it doesn’t turn, I examine it to make sure it’s the right one.
    It is.
    I attempt to unlock the door again, and it doesn’t even wiggle. I immediately bang on the door. “Evie! What the hell?”
    I pull out my phone and call her number only to get the voicemail.
    “Evie!” Now my knocks are so hard, I know my hand is going to turn red.
    After no answer, I call her phone again and I still don’t get an answer.
    “What the fuck!” I shout.
    I run down the stairs and around to the side of the house to see if I left my window open. I didn’t! I continue farther around the house to her window and bang on it. In less than a minute, the window raises and Evie scowls at me.
    “Why the hell can’t I open the door?” I yell at her.
    At first she looks bored, then her eyes perk a bit. I can tell she’s been drinking, a lot. “Because I changed the locks, hon.”
    “Fantastic, can you open the door then?”
    She chuckles. “See, the thing is that you