Paula Rouco returns to her bedroom disoriented and gets a call from Angelo.
Angelo excitedly says on the other end of the phone, “Paulita, next month I get to go back to Imperial and Lao Gu has arranged for me to have an exchange student place at your school, so soon we can study together like when we were kids.”
Paula Rouco is sitting on the bed with her knees in one hand and the phone in the other listening to Angelo on the other end of the line.
Without realizing it, tears were falling.
She wanted so badly to talk to someone, but she was afraid.
How can you say something so humiliating when you’re pregnant before you’re married and you’ve been dumped by your partner?
“Paulita, what’s wrong with you, why don’t you talk, don’t you want me to come to your school?”
Paula Rouco swallowed, suppressed the lump in her throat and forced a smile, “I certainly hope so, I won’t feel so lonely if you come.”
Hearing her say that, Angelo gloated childishly, “See, I told you you should be alone without Angelo and me by your side.”
“Angelo, thank you.”
Angelo laughed, “What are you thanking me for, it’s not like I want you to thank me for going to your school, I want to …”
Anyway, when he gets to Imperial University, there will be plenty of time between them.
Still can’t believe that his entire eighteen-year friendship with Paulita is going to be replaced by a parachuting Severo Laris?
After hanging up the phone, Paula Rouco was silent for a long, long time.
Soon after, Buena broke through from the outside.
Analeigh and Rio had gone to the dining hall for dinner and were not at the lodge, so they were now alone in the lodge.
Buena looked at Paula Rouco in the top bunk and asked, “Paulita, I think you and Severo broke up a while ago, didn’t you?”
Paula Rouco said with a cold, white face, “What does that have to do with you?”.
Buena not only didn’t get upset, but said kindly, “Well … but Severo asked me today if I want to be his girlfriend, and I haven’t decided whether to say yes or no, I’m just afraid that if I say yes, you’ll get mad. After all, we’re in the same dorm, so at least we’re housemates.”
Paula Rouco’s slender fingers, a little tight in her palm, are pale and bloodless.
She didn’t mind showing weakness in front of a two-faced person like Buena, so she curved her lips and let out a laugh, “It’s been a long time since I had anything to do with Severo Laris, he’s after you or if you want to be his girlfriend, such trivial matters don’t need to be told to me, it’s none of my business.”
“Why are you like this, I too am afraid that our friendship will fall apart because of this.”
Paula Rouco laughed mockingly, “Is there a friendship between us? How come I don’t know, isn’t it always like this, whether it falls apart or not?”.
Buena couldn’t be more pretentious and gritted her teeth, her eyes glittering with irritation, “Paula Rouco, don’t think you can be bossy just because you’re a lady. Besides, you’ve been dumped by Severo Laris, what’s the point of being bossy? It’s just a broken shoe.”
Paula Rouco laughed instead of getting angry, “So what about you, you’re proud of dating Severo Laris, what does that make you, am I to understand that because I was dating Severo Laris you feel honored and proud to take something from me?”
“You!”
“The lipstick I’ve worn, you like wearing it, the clothes I’ve worn, you like wearing them, and now even the men I’ve worn, you like them. good, it’s not really that you like Severo Laris, you like me, don’t you?”
Buena gritted her teeth and said, “Paula Rouco! Don’t talk bullshit.”
“If you don’t come here to do shit, why would I do shit with you?”
Buena snorted coldly, “You play hard to get. When you lived with Severo, he slept with you a lot, didn’t he? Free relief for your physical needs. But you know what, Severo said he couldn’t bear to do that to me, said he could hold back because I was precious to him.”
Paula Rouco’s fingertips, almost pinching the blood in her palm.
She didn’t believe it, didn’t believe Severo Laris could be such a person.
She still didn’t believe Severo Laris had broken up with her for the superficial reasons she claimed.
…
Severo Laris is very busy, so much so that he has no free time.
Rufio also wondered more than once why Severo Laris broke up with Paula Rouco, as the guy had acted like he was numb with work after the breakup.
“Old Lin, I never seriously asked you, why exactly did you break up with Paulita, a girl so nice, pretty, smooth personality and, above all, so dear to you? Can you tell your friend the truth?”
Severo Laris, his head buried in his work, blurted out a nonchalant, “If you don’t like her, you don’t like her.”
“No, that’s not what I’m saying. Of course you don’t like the kind of things you do, but you lived with Paulita to buy a house and even borrowed money from me, you were clearly in love with her, so how can you say you don’t like it?”
Severo Laris’ slender fingers flipped through the papers, paused and said, “I bought the house to live in it, not to have anything to do with it.”
Rufio couldn’t ask any more questions, he knew Severo Laris, and no one could coax Severo Laris out of his reserved mouth if he didn’t want to talk.
Severo Laris said, “Tomorrow I am going to S to follow Mr. Carda’s case again. It will probably take at least two or three days, whichever law firm you and Lastra look at.”
“Right.”
…
Severo Laris left Costillas in Lastra’s care for two days because he was going on a business trip.
The next morning, as Severo Laris was packing his bags and preparing to leave for the airport, he opened the door and saw a small, familiar, haggard face.
Paula Rouco stood in the doorway of her home, and between the four eyes, one was surprised and the other confused.
Severo Laris stifled the fluttering of his heart and asked in a calm voice, “What brings you here?”
Paula Rouco had a long list of words and questions to come clean with him, but now that she saw how cold he was, the words stuck in her throat and she couldn’t get them out.
Severo Laris dragged a small black trolley-style suitcase and said, “I’m going to leave if I don’t talk.”
He closed the door and turned to leave, dragging his suitcase with him, when his arm was tugged by a small, slightly cold hand.
“Severo Laris…”
Her voice, dry and muffled, hurt to hear.
The desire to stifle a sob was as aggravating as it could be.
Severo Laris did not turn to look at her, fearing that if he saw her tears he would hug her for nothing.
Paula Rouco drops her small face and her gaze settles on the small of his thin, strong arm, on the inside of his left arm, where a small tattoo of Paula is clearly visible.
He spoke dumbly, “I was up all night last night, racking my brains trying to figure out why you didn’t like me anymore, why you had broken up with me. If it was for the reasons you said earlier at the amusement park, I could have changed them.”
“You don’t like me being childish, I can try to be mature, you don’t like me bothering you to take up your time at work, I can stop bothering you, you say you are busy and tired at work and don’t want to return my irrelevant texts and calls, I won’t be so capricious to always text and call you in the future.”
“I can change all this. stern Laris, you are not the only one who cooperates with me, I can also cooperate with you in your way.”
She had never liked someone like that, she liked him enough to lose her pride, and even though she had been dumped so vilely, she took the initiative to go up and stay with him.
She liked him too much, so much that she wanted to keep liking him even if she lost her ego.
Maybe in another five or ten years, she would look back on this relationship and feel foolish to the point of stupidity, but she was eighteen now and wanted nothing more than him.
“Severo Laris, let’s make up. I really don’t want to break up with you.”
She cried uncontrollably, tears rolling down Severo Laris’ arm one by one, each one like a spark that burned Severo Laris to the bone.