Pretty Girl

Chapter 11

Let us just get right back into it, shall we? ;) I LOVE YOU! 

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CHAPTER 11: Without Alice knowing, a few days later Sydney went shopping for the baby shower, and paid for it all herself. 

She wanted to indulge Alice. She felt horrible for leaving her best friend with no warning, even if she had been doing it to keep her best friend safe. She got tans and gold colors, knowing they didn't know the sex of the baby and wouldn't know until the baby would be born.

 For the first time in a while, she felt like herself. Not the fake façade that she put up to placate everyone. She had tried to sneak out without anyone noticing her going, but Giovanni, ever the eagle-eyed protector, spotted her the second she put on her heels. 

"Fuck." She had grimaced as Giovanni's shadow loomed behind her. 

"Where are you going?" Asked one of the only father figures she had ever had. 

She spun around, pursing her lips and scowling up at him. 

He only quirked a bushy brow, seeming amused. "I know your scowl can be particularly terrifying to those around us, but it has no affect on me. It didn't when you were 15 and it still doesn't now." He said, laughter creeping into his words. 

Sydney sighed, shoulders dropping. "I am an adult, you know." She grumbled. 

He, too, sighed. "I know that, as well. But Sydney, you must know how much danger you are in." 

Sydney wouldn't meet his eyes. 

"Where are you going?" He continued; voice irritated. 

"You can't say anything. Yes, Alice knows I am throwing her a baby shower, but she doesn't know that it is going to be TONIGHT. So, I am going out and getting the stuff for it. Please, Gio. I need some semblance of normalcy in my life right now...I will just make myself go crazy. Please?"

 He stared at her before he conceded with a nod, interrupting her hug with, "But one of my guards will go with you and you DO NOT try to lose him. No arguments." 

Sydney had already slung on her sweater, just in case it decided to get windy, although the summer air that met her face promised anything but. Sydney got into her car and drove to the mall. While driving, she looked up into the rear-view mirror and caught sight of the black SUV. 

Not subtle at all, she thought with a snicker. 

Here she was now, in the middle of the nursery section with two very large men hovering everywhere she went around 10 feet from her. 

She let out a sound similar to a disgruntled dog that had their shiny new toy taken away when she saw that there were two of them; of course Giovanni hadn't actually only let her leave with just one guard, instead sending two.

 Irritation tickled the back of her neck in a lick of tingly heat. The men were basically twiddling their thumbs; they didn't know what to do with themselves. 

She thumbed through a couple more onesies and then threw her hands up in the air, "GOOD LORD! Can you two be any more annoying?!" She snarled as she stomped over to them, ripping the glasses off of the one man. 

He winced and his brow furrowed as he stared at her. 

"First day, right? Well listen here, buddy. And you too!" She pointed to the other guard who was looking everywhere but her, nervously tapping his foot. "I have dealt with a bunch of over-protective shit-heads in my life and even more so particularly in the last two months, so I am only going to say this once. When you are supposed to guard me, the only acceptable conclusion is a 25-foot distance between me and you meatheads at ALL times. You let me do my thing. If I wanna strip down to absolutely nothing just to get attention, you will very well let me fucking do it. If I burst into song, singing Bohemian Rhapsody in the parking lots of Bergdorf Goodman, you will let me do it. I have had it up to HERE with men and I will tell you this once, one wrong move and your balls are the VERY first I am going to reach for to rip from between your legs and to throw it at your head. Are. We. CLEAR?" Sydney said, huffing by the end of her rant.