Paula Maxwell Paula Maxwell was a girlfriend of Andy McDonald in 1992 and 1994 . Paula was a sixth form pupil at Weatherfield Comprehensive when she became friends with Andy . They met at the library , where they went to study after school in the months leading up to their A - level exams . Andy was interested in Paula but thought she had a boyfriend as she was with a lad , Gary , on one visit . He asked Paula about this and she told him she wasn ' t seeing anyone and , reciprocating his feelings , she exchanged numbers with him . Andy ' s brother Steve also asked her out , but Paula preferred Andy so turned him down . Paula and Andy then started spending more time together . Andy tricked Jim and Liz McDonald into agreeing to Paula spending the night at 11 Coronation Street by letting them believe he would be sleeping on the sofa , when actually he and Paula were sleeping together . When the headmistress Sue Jeffers warned Paula that she was spending too much time with Andy and that her grades were suffering , Paula hired Ken Barlow as a private tutor and avoided Andy until her exams were over , for his sake as well as hers . Andy thought she was studying too much and camped outside her house until she agreed to talk to him , although he soon got bored of this and finished with her . They made up in time for their exams , but Andy had barely studied and walked out of his General Studies exam when he couldn ' t answer any of the questions . He returned to the exam hall at Ken Barlow ' s urging , when Ken told him that Paula wouldn ' t be able to concentrate on the rest of the exam . During the summer , Paula and Andy went travelling together . When the exam results came through , Paula got two As and a B . She and Andy decided to go for Sheffield University and share a flat , but Paula was offered a place at Manchester and decided to go there instead , seeing it as a good thing as she would make new friends instead of being with Andy all the time . Andy didn ' t take her decision well at first but soon came round and saw it as a good thing . In November , Andy told Paula he was finished with University as he couldn ' t stand to be apart from her . Paula persuaded him to go back , not wanting to be blamed by Jim and Liz for Andy ' s rash decision . A month later , the couple finished . In August 1994 , Paula applied for a holiday job at Bettabuy , where Andy was Assistant Manager . Curly Watts wasn ' t inclined to employ her as she had no experience but Andy talked him round . Paula was still interested in Andy and was pleased when he told Vera Duckworth off for skiving when she was supposed to be instructing Paula . When Andy realised Paula was after him , he backed off , telling her he wasn ' t ready for emotional entanglements . One person who did fancy her was Curly Watts , who asked her out for a drink offering to help her get a promotion as an incentive . Paula tried to avoid Curly and made plans to go to Goa with her friends instead of returning to University . Still interested in Andy , Paula accepted Curly ' s invitation to dinner at 7 Coronation Street , assuming Andy would be there , however Andy made plans to stay at his parents house that night . Fortunately she ran into Andy on her way to No . 7 and he invited her to come to No . 11 instead . They spent the night together although they didn ' t rekindle their relationship as both returned to University shortly thereafter .