Page 13 of Railed

I clearly was insane, though, since I hit the call button before I could think better of it. I hung up almost immediately, but not quickly enough. since he called right back. I stared in horror as my phone began to ring with his immediate call back.

I couldn't answer. I hardly knew him, but not answering after I'd called him first was also really rude.

I settled on a cop-out, hitting reject and texting him instead.

I'm so sorry, didn't mean to call!

The response came almost instantaneously.

Gauge

Don't worry about it! But now that we're talking, how'd your meeting go?

I wasn't sure what to tell him. I barely knew him, but it was nice knowing someone else cared about me. No, about the trains, I corrected myself. He cares about the trains, not me. It was nice to not be alone in that. Even Cassie, whose texts I hadn't been able to force myself to return after the meeting, only really cared about the trains because she cared about me. Gauge, though, actually cared about the machines themselves.

Honestly?

Gauge

I'll take whatever I can get

The joke made me actually laugh out loud. Maybe it wasn't that stupid of me to have texted him after all.

Truthfully, it didn't go great

Gauge

I doubt that's true

I sighed, unsure how to explain that my ex was spearheading the project. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to. I ended up settling for a simpler version of the truth.

The guy running the project has it out for me

Gauge

What's his problem?

He hates trains

And fun

And me

More me than anything

We dated for a while

Gauge

…You dated someone who hates trains?

I laughed loudly at that before quickly replying.

I know, I know, horrible taste

Gauge

Have things changed?