17. Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Seventeen
Emma
I had no idea how I'd gotten this lucky. I'd been really tired from the drinks, and instead of Gauge trying to fuck the exhaustion out of me, he'd drawn me a bath and wasn't even weirdly sexual about it.
He was going to leave me, but I asked him to stay. So he sat with his back against the bathroom wall, fully clothed outside of the tub, and we just talked—about my day, about my life. He wanted to know everything about me.
It was crazy. I never did things like this.
I never really felt attraction for other people; now here I was, barging in on a polycule where I felt attraction for two of the three members.
I hadn't met their third partner, Rosie, but based on the way Jamie talked about her, I'd be surprised if I wasn't also attracted to her.
I could almost cry from the relief of finally feeling normal and being attracted to real people, not trains. Although, with how many train references Gauge slipped into our conversations, either I've found another person in the world like me, or he had picked up on it and didn't judge me.
I couldn't believe I'd gotten so lucky.
When I got out of the bath, he wrapped me up in a giant warm towel and gave me a comfy button-up shirt of his to wear that fell about halfway down my thigh.
I felt sexy in it, but I was covered unless I bent over or raised my arms up too high.
"Should I be wearing more?"
He just shrugged. "Are you comfortable?"
"Well, yeah, but I don't want to make Rosie uncomfortable."
I already knew Jamie well enough to know this wouldn't bother them at all.
"That's really sweet of you," Gauge said, opening the door to his room and leading me over to the kitchen, "but I doubt there's anything you could do that would make Rosie uncomfortable."
He opened the fridge and was looking at what they had when the door opened. I turned around, not wanting their roommate's first impression of me to be of my ass in Gauge's shirt, but froze where I stood when I saw who'd walked in.
The conductor.
The scorchingly hot conductor from the train the other day.
The one who knee-fucked me in the empty train car.
My jaw dropped. "What?"
She grinned instantly. "Hey gorgeous, you here for me?"
"You know she isn't," Gauge answered for me. It'd been annoying back when Miles used to do that, but it was surprisingly hot when Gauge did it. Probably because he already knew me well enough to anticipate what I was thinking.
"So, you finally made your move," she—Rosie—mused with a wicked grin as she prowled toward us. "Good for you."
Jamie walked out into the living room and glanced between me, Gauge and Rosie, before grinning. "Well, everyone's up to speed now, cool."
"Wait, what?" I asked looking at Jamie with alarm.
Jamie bit their lip, saying, "I did it again, didn't I?" They turned to Gauge and asked, "You didn't tell her?"
"About?" he replied.
"That you two knew about the ride I gave Emma the other day?" Rosie filled in.
"So, you're their other partner?" I asked, needing to make sure I understood everything clearly.
"I told her we're poly," Jamie clarified.
"We're all together, if that's what you're asking," Rosie explained. "We like to share."
"Only if you're interested, obviously," Gauge added.
"Obviously," Jamie agreed.
"She is," Rosie answered for me while staring at me with a tilt of her head, daring me to disagree.
"I-I, um…"
Very eloquent. But I was standing in the same room with the only three people I could remember ever being attracted to, all of whom I'd been some level of physical with, and I didn't have the first clue what to say.
"You're coming on too strong," Gauge warned, putting a protective hand on my back.
I shot him a grateful smile before turning back to Rosie. She smirked and replied, "You'll come around, and when you do, Gauge and I can show you and Jamie a good time."
Jamie just rolled their eyes and grabbed Rosie's hand. She looked genuinely surprised when they started to lead her out of the room. Before Jamie closed the door behind both of them, they shot me a wink and mouthed, "You're welcome."
Being here was overwhelming, but in a good way. I was starting to think I was going to like it here.