Gilded

Chapter 5

I didn't know what to do. Should I confront Aaron? Was confront too strong of a word? Should I just ask him...what was up with him and Jane. Jen. God, what was her name? And why did Rafael remove the picture? Did Aaron see it and demand it be taken off Raf's page?

If it was truly an innocent and one-sided kiss, would Aaron be mad that I even asked him about it? I unpacked the last garden gnome and nestled him in a pot on my cart. Time for a water break. I went to wash my hands at the hose station, and went to sit in a lawn chair in the shaded part of the tent. I opened my water bottle and took a big swig of water. I opened my Instagram and went to Aaron's page. He didn't have too many posts, mostly just a few food and hockey posts. Aaron said it was a waste of time to post, but I knew he was always looking at other people's posts.

I clicked on his Following list and searched for Jen. A couple came up on his search, and bam, the second one listed was JMacxoxo - Jenn. Perfect makeup and perfect hair in her profile pic. I went and proceeded to stalk her pictures. Her account was open for the public viewing, and view I did.

She posted some pics from last night, one with her and Rafael, but I didn't see Aaron in those pics. Most of her pictures were selfies, and some with her in skimpy attire and stating she was ready to head out with girlfriends. I randomly chose one from a couple weeks ago with her and her gorgeous hair in waves and wearing a low cut thin ribbed pink tank top.  I stared at her chest. Were those real? She clearly wasn't wearing a bra. I read her post.

"Heading to the patio tonight. Can't wait to see you all there, esp the boys. You know who you are." Winky face. Blech. Really? Thirty comments for that clever write up? I hit the comments to see what people were saying, and mostly it was either her friends saying how gorgeous she looked, and guys saying how hot she looked. A name caught my eye. Aaron KL. My Aaron. Who didn't say anything but, left the flame emoji as his comment. Three flames.

He told her she was hot.

Not wanting to, but scared to not do it, I looked at some more of Jenn's pictures. A part of me was relieved that I didn't see any more interactions of Aaron and her pictures. A part of me was worried that they had interacted more but not in public.

We were all in the same art history class. I sat with Aaron in class in the middle rows. I remembered Jenn because she was always late and always sat in the front where the remaining open seats were. I didn't think they had ever interacted in class. But I think she knew Raf before, so obviously they must have met through him.

"Sabrina, you doing okay?" Aunt Amanda's voice interrupted my thoughts and I jumped a little. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"I'm fine," I assured my aunt, tucking my phone back into my apron pocket. "Aunt Amanda..."

"Yes?" she replied while taking a look at some of the new planters.

I wanted to ask her how I could know if my boyfriend might be cheating on me. But I chickened out. "Did you see the gnomes? They're really cute."

My aunt looked over at the new products and squealed. "Oh, they're even cuter in person! They were already so adorable in the catalogue." My aunt continued to talk about garden décor and I listened with one ear and nodded at the right times while I kept picturing Jenn kissing my boyfriend, doing other things with my boyfriend. What if they hooked up last night? What if they'd hooked up before?

What if they'd been seeing each other for a while and I didn't even know?

"I'm going to the tree area next. Are you off in about an hour?" Aunt Amanda asked, checking her watch.

"Yup," I replied automatically, not even looking at the time.

"Okay, if I don't see you before you leave, I'll see you tonight, your parents invited us over for hot pot," Aunt Amanda said, heading out the door.

I took my phone back out and called Aaron.

"Hi Babe," Aaron answered after the second ring. "What's up? I thought you were working at your aunt's today?"

"I am, I'm almost done," I replied, kicking some cardboard scraps into a pile. "How's your day going?" I asked. "Are you at work?"

"Yeah, halfway done, I'm off at ten tonight. Do you want to hang out after? I thought I had the later shift today, but that still gives us some time tonight. Noah's having people over tonight for fire pit, we could stop by," Aaron said.

See, he wants to hang out with you, I told myself. "I have family coming over for hot pot, do you want to come over? I'll save you some food."

"Is it your aunt and other relatives? I think that's too much for me tonight," Aaron said. "You go ahead and hang out with your family tonight. I'm off tomorrow, I'll pick you up for lunch?"

"Sure," I said.

"Love you Sab, can't wait to see you tomorrow. I miss you," he said.

"Me too," I breathed.

"Oh, gotta go, someone's coming," he said, and hung up.

You'll see him tomorrow, I told myself, and continued to clean up the rest of the packing material to distract myself and keep myself on task.