Don't Touch

-32-

Sean walked up and placed a comforting hand on Syd's shoulder. "I know all the shit I talked before... but you weren't stupid. You were in love. And people do a lot of shit when they're in love."

"But I should've known! I should've paid attention or something! Even if not the Santiago stuff, he was still constantly flirting with other women and making me feel like shit about my body! What the fuck!?"

"He what?!" Sean tensed up and his bruised hand tightened into a fist as he started pacing. "Simone, you didn't tell me about that part. You said he was treating you better."

Syd looked down, tears still pouring from her eyes. "I tried to convince myself that he was..."

"I can't wait to put a bullet in his fucking head!" Sean barked. "As soon as we get the information we need from him, he's fucking done!"

Syd pulled herself together as best as she could. "When can I speak to him? I'm probably our best bet at getting him to talk."

"Let's give it a couple days because right now, I want to kill that piece of shit more than I did Saturday and your emotions are still too raw."

"Fine," she said glumly. "Why do they always seem to target me?"

"Honestly?" Sean took Syd's hand to lead her to the kitchen table. "Because you're still trying to be Syd Johnson and Syd Johnson is an easy target, especially for someone of your status."

"I'm not sure I follow." Syd looked at him baffled. "I've come out publicly as Simone Davidson. I have security following me around. I've been handling business for almost a year now."

"I mean you still have the mindset of Syd Johnson. Syd Johnson is more trusting, no one is out to get Syd Johnson. Syd Johnson is just a photographer living an average life, and as a result, it makes you soft."

"Continue..." Syd's tears had dried and she crossed her arms as she raised a skeptical brow.

"Think about the way you interact with people as Simone Davidson versus Syd Johnson. Would Simone Davidson have taken back Hector? Would she have trusted someone who'd betrayed her before?"

Syd shook her head.

"Sis... I'm not going to tell you to become a completely different person, but I am going to tell you to always be mindful that you are Simone Davidson - even if people do keep calling you Syd. Now that both worlds know you're Simone, they will treat you as Simone. You don't get the separation anymore."

Syd nodded and put her finger to her chin as she pondered his words. She didn't feel that Simone Davidson and Syd Johnson were that different. They were still her, but she could admit that when she was in Syd Johnson mode, she was a lot more trusting of people and even with the knowledge in the back of her head that she could be being watched, she wasn't constantly looking over her shoulder.

She let out a deep sigh and sharpened her gaze at Sean. "Now that that's covered, we need to talk about you and Lali... Sean, that's my best friend and she's married. What are you doing?!"

"What happened to us not telling each other who to fuck? You ain't hear me bring up you fucking Em. I peeped you limping."

"Ughhh," Syd let out a frustrated groan. "But what about Chris?"

"Sis... None. Of. Your. Business. Unless you want me to bring up you and Em fucking. Are y'all a couple now?"

"No, no." Syd shook her head. "Em is a sweet talker and we're good friends, but I'm not naive enough to expect anything more from him. I know how men like him operate."

"What if you're wrong?" Sean knew his sister was wrong, but he didn't think it was his place to tell Syd how Emiliano felt about her.

"Well, if he wants me in that way, I feel like he'd tell me. Either way, I'm not in any condition emotionally to jump into anything with anyone regardless of how I feel-" Syd cleared her throat. "Whatever, this is the last thing we should be worrying about."

"Yeah, but we definitely need to pick things up with Dmitry and Santi. This is their second attempt on you and we need to get their asses back. Let's see what we can get out of Hector in a few days and go from there... Also, you'll need to stay with me or the Rossi brothers until you get a new apartment near one of us. You're too far uptown for any of us to get to you."

"I'll stay with you," she responded without hesitation. "I need to get my mind right and this is the best place to do it."

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A/N: Thank you for reading!

This book hit 10K reads and I wanted to do something special because this is the first piece of creative writing that I've ever put out and I'm excited about the reception it's gotten so far! 😁

I wanted to do a third update this week (next one is coming Friday or Saturday), but I'm not far enough ahead to do that (I keep rewriting this exchange in a chapter I have planned for next week 😅). Anyway... Since that's not ready, I decided to post the first chapter of an experimental story (also mfm, but who knows... could end up reverse harem because why choose one when you could have boffum or alluem) if you want to check it out. It's called "The Last Petal" and it's paranormal.