11

"You are here! For a second, I thought you weren't going to come back here." Linda said the moment she saw Paula walk in, but she stopped to raise a surprised brow. "You're wearing a lipstick?"

Paula giggled. Linda was fond of reminding her she was a single woman and in her opinion, all single women must look good always and that involved full make over and outfits. But Paula never listened to her. She only took proper care of her appearance when she was going to school and she made sure her make up was mild and moderate.

"I had to. Didn't want the big boy to nag." Paula used her thumb to point at Jaime behind her. Jaime was close enough to hear them, and he chuckled.

"Hello there!" Linda greeted. She surprisingly wasn't acting flirty or throwing herself at him. Maybe because they were a lot of people here? Regardless, it made Paula relieved.

"Thanks for inviting us Linda." Jaime said politely.

"Don't be silly. If I do not invite you two, who am I going to invite?" She said warmly.

Paula raised a brow at her. Why was she suddenly acting so sweet and mature? This wasn't the Linda she knew.

"Just excuse me for a moment, you two. I need to greet some people." Linda hurried towards the door when one of Derek's friend came in.

"So you've been looking less pretty since I left?" Jaime turned to ask Paula when Linda excused them.

"I do make sure to look modest whenever I go to the school. That should be enough. We should join the others now." She quickly changed the topic and went further to the dining table which was filled with glasses, wine bottles and snacks.

As the party progressed, Jaime found out Paula was really planning to get wasted and he guessed it was probably because of what had happened. He was glad she was pulling herself together and not fretting over it. How would he have handled the situation in that case?

Since she was drinking a lot, he made sure not to drink since he was going to drive them back and he also needed to watch over her.

He was beginning to get bored and uncomfortable, especially when some women who were obviously married, began to throw flirty looks at him, thankfully, the three idiots arrived.

Playful Alex was already looking very excited even before he stepped inside the building. His other friends kept a neutral expression. Soon, the boys got into the mood of the party. Unlike what they had all expected and for a party which was planned at the last minute, there were quite a lot of people present.

"Woah! Paula is really digging it. Are you sure she is going to be fine?" Indifferent Des asked, looking genuinely concerned.

The boys turned to look at Paula. She was having a conversation with Derek and another man and was laughing heartily. She looked really engrossed in the conversation and even though Jaime was supposed to be worried since it seemed like she was having too much to drink, he was relieved to see her look like she hadn't just found out about 24 hours ago that someone was monitoring her life.

Paula had always been like that. She was a strong and confident woman who never allowed things weigh her down easily, that was how they had both survived until now.

Desmond nudged him by the side, bringing him back to his senses.

Jaime raised a questioning brow at Des, wondering why the guy had done that but Des simply gave him a suspicious look before he went to fetch a glass of wine for himself.

He wondered what that was about but he didn't push it. Instead, he turned his attention towards Alex who was intensely looking at Paula.

"What is it?" Alex asked with a frown on his face when Jaime stood in front of him, blocking his view of Paula.

"I know what you are thinking in that head of yours. You better stop it." Jaime said.

"Come on, man. I am just innocently admiring the woman. It's not like I am going to do anything to her. In fact, you should be more worried about that man who has been flirting with her ever since he arrived. I am sure she is too drunk to notice."

Jaime turned to look at Paula's direction. Derek was gone, leaving Paula alone with the man they had been having a conversation with earlier.

The man was smiling while listening to what Paula was saying, then he offered her his own glass of wine when Paula gulped down hers.

"Boys! You should he having fun! Play games or something." Linda said loudly when she approached where the guys were standing idly instead of playing games or dancing to the loud music like the others were doing.

"I already am having fun." Des appeared behind her while munching on an apple pie.

Jaime didn't pay attention to any of them. He wanted to go pull Paula away from the man, but before he could move, he saw Paula shake her head to reject his offer and when the man tried to touch her face, she stepped back from his reach and giggled.

Jaime was finally relieved. He knew Paula could always take care of herself. She always has. Always will.

"You look like a father watching over his little daughter. You really should stop staring now." Tim said almost quietly to Jaime before walking away.

Jaime sighed deeply. He was really behaving like her father. So instead of simply standing there and monitoring everything Paula was doing, he decided to go out and look around for any suspicious person. What if the stalker had followed them here and was lurking around?