Gilded

Chapter 6

I had the house to myself the next morning. My parents were at work, and my brother went home with my cousins last night to sleepover and play video games. I decided to take some time to make myself extra presentable for Aaron. I was no Hot Jenn, but I could try to be an Okay Sabrina Who Made the Effort.

I took a shower and shaved. I moisturized with some strawberry lotion that Aaron gave me for my birthday, dried my thick hair and attempted to put in a wave in it, which sort of worked. I put my contact lenses in and plucked a few stray hairs from my eyebrows.

I went to my closet. Inspired by Jenn, I tried on a tight low v-neck white tank top sans bra, and wrinkled my nose. Definitely not my look. I put my bra back on and put on a black tank top. Much better. I put on a pair of jean shorts that had good coverage. I hiked them up and looked at myself in the mirror, but felt uncomfortable. Other girls looked so good in short shorts, but I was not one of them. I sighed and pulled my shorts back down where they belonged.

I sat at my table to work on my makeup. I didn't normally wear much, but I thought I would try a cat eye with eyeliner today. I did my left eye fairly quickly and easily, and was impressed with my handiwork. I did the right one, but it wasn't going well. I took off the eyeliner and tried again. The second time was better, but still wasn't great. I wondered if I should just forget about the eyeliner, but decided I would be wearing sunglasses and so it wouldn't really matter anyway. 

The doorbell rang just as I put a coat of my new red lipstick on. I opened the door and Aaron enveloped me in a big hug. It was so nice to see him and hold him.

"I've missed you so much these last two days," Aaron murmured in my ear, and then kissed the area just underneath it. He ran his hand down my back. "Are you home alone? Should we just hang out here?" Aaron asked, feathering my neck with kisses. "On your bed?"

I was tempted and just wanted to live in the moment. But a small part in my brain somewhere poked me, and showed me and reminded me of the trio of flame emojis.

"Maybe later," I said. "I'm hungry, let's go get something to eat. You promised me lunch, right? What should we get?"

We picked up banh mi and iced coffee for lunch and headed to the park.

"How about here," I asked and unrolled the blanket onto the grass. We settled down and unwrapped our Vietnamese sandwiches.

We started eating, sitting side by side with our shoulders brushing, and watched the Canada geese wandering around the lake. I glanced over slightly at Aaron while I chewed. He was my boyfriend and I loved him. I couldn't believe he would cheat on me.

"Were there a lot of girls at the fight night?" I asked casually as I took a sip of my drink.

"It was mostly guys," Aaron said with his mouth full. "Some girlfriends, though most aren't interested, like you. And girls who enjoy a sausage fest."

I choked on the imagery of the words. "I saw some of Raf's pictures on Instagram," I said slowly. "I thought I saw you and one of the girls from our art history class together. Blonde? I think her name is Jenn?" I braced myself, thinking Aaron would deny it.

Aaron sighed. "Did you see that picture?" He turned to look at me.

"Yes," I said in a small voice. Was he going to be mad that I looked at Rafael's pictures? I didn't want him to think I was spying on him. "It, it wasn't there anymore when I went to look for it again. Did you ask Raf to take it down?"

Aaron ran a hand through his hair. "I did. I didn't want you to see it, Sab."

My eyes started tearing up. This was it. The worst case scenario was coming true.

Aaron saw my face. "No, no, it's not what you think! Jenn's been annoying. She's friends with Raf and some of the others so she's always around. She's been flirting with me even though she knows I have a girlfriend. She's been really persistent."

I turned my head away to wipe some tears that were sprouting at the corner of my eyes. I wished my sunglasses were mirrored so he couldn't see.

Aaron leaned over and gently grabbed my chin, turning my head to face him. "Nothing has ever happened. You're all I need."

"Do you promise?" I whispered.

"I promise," Aaron said, gently kissing me. "I love you."

I kissed him back, feeling relieved.

It was only later I realized I didn't ask him about the flame emojis.