Guard Dog

Shortly after that moment, I realized that the people who came to greet us were no longer older people but people from our generation. It seemed like we were done with greeting the prominent and important guests, and now we were free to mingle with people who were around our age. A group of men approached us, and Raphael smoothly introduced me to them before introducing all of them as his friends as well as business partners.

Something similar happened a couple of times before I realized that there were many people staring our way, and all of them were women. It was all very similar to the vibe that I got when I entered the office to find many people gossiping about me except this time I felt like I wasn’t the only one at the center of their attention. I glanced over at Raphael, who was busy chatting with his friends, as I wondered if he realized this as well.

"Don't pay them any attention," Raphael told me passively after his friends walked away.