The Bad Boy Next Room (Charlie and Taylor) novel Chapter 49

“I’ll help in any way I can,” Charlie offered. “I’ll drop by the College of Engineering now and then.”

“You don’t have to,” Taylor said. “I don’t want to burden—”

“It’s not a burden. I can even join Tristan’s therapy sessions so I can better understand,” Charlie offered.

Taylor stared at her with an intense gaze. His lips curved up approvingly as he asked, “Is this your way of saying you want to become Tristan’s sister-in-law?”

Charlie couldn’t help but laugh. She was so amused that she cried while laughing. “We are having a serious conversation here, Taylor.”

“And I was serious about it,” Taylor said softly, never looking away.

For seconds, Charlie stayed silent, just looking back at him. After a while, she asked, “Wait. So, you should have trust issues, right? It’s why you haven’t been in a relationship since.”

When Taylor nodded, Charlie asked, “How am I different? Why are you suddenly breaking your walls for me when you don’t know me that well yet?”

“Well, for starters, you were Luke’s girlfriend. You did not just come out of nowhere,” With hand gestures, he suggested, “There has to be a certain amount of filtering there.”

He fixed his gaze on Charlie, saying, “And I don’t know. For me, you were different. With Amber, she tried to get my attention before I pursued her, but it was subtle. In your case, you didn’t want anything to do with me at first. You even ignored me at school.”

“Okay.” Charlie’s eyes wandered around before admitting, “But honestly, Luke and his parents didn’t necessarily look me up. I mean, they asked about me, but they didn’t check my background.”

A hiss left Taylor’s lips. He cleared his throat and admitted, “Okay, I asked about you from the dean.”

“What?” Charlie asked.

“A day after the general assembly, I went to see the dean of the College of Business and asked about you,” Taylor revealed, shocking Charlie.

“You asked about me?” Charlie repeated. “And then, what did you find out?”

### TAYLOR’S FLASHBACK###

“Good morning, Dean,” Taylor greeted Dr. Vanessa Caldwell, the dean of the College of Business. He sat right in front of her desk, beaming.

“What are you doing here, West? You’re not my student,” the dean said, already recognizing him.