Saturday night and I was home alone. My younger brother was out with his friends. Even my parents had plans. I had a boyfriend and I was still home on a Saturday night. Feeling sorry for myself, I sighed and rummaged through the pantry for chips. The big question tonight would be the choice of ketchup or all dressed flavoured. I sighed. I popped open the bag of all dressed and settled down on the sofa, scrolling through Instagram half-heartedly on my iPad.
A familiar face caught my eye. Aaron. It wasn't his post but his friend Raf's, posted a mere eight minutes ago. They were both standing on either side of a waitress at the sports bar, a beautiful twenty something with wavy brown hair, blue eyes, in a cropped tank top that barely covered her big chest, her arms thrown around the guys. She was sexiness personified.
I continued to scroll. Looked like Raf was busy posting instead of watching the fight. The next one pictured one of their friend's stuffing his face with chicken wings. But that wasn't what caught my eye. In the background, someone was kissing Aaron.
My heart stopped and then accelerated. She was kissing him on the cheek, but still...he had a girlfriend! Me! I was his girlfriend! He told me he was just going out with the guys. I looked more closely at the photo. She looked familiar...she was in our art history class! What was her name? Jen? Jane?
I tossed my bag of chips aside. What did this mean? Was he cheating on me? Even if he wasn't officially cheating on me, did he always flirt with girls when I wasn't around? Should I text him or call him? But first I decided to take a screenshot of the picture, I didn't know why, but I felt like I needed proof and that this picture could just disappear when I needed it.
I picked up my phone and decided to send a text. Light hearted or accusatory?
Having fun? I texted. I wasn't really expecting a reply, but a couple of minutes later I got a ping.
Yeah it was a good match. The place is packed, Aaron texted back.
Who are you hanging out with? I inquired innocently.
Just the guys, he replied back a few minutes later.
Hmm. I didn't know what to think. I mean, a girl kissed him (on the cheek!), but he was replying back pretty much right away.
Should I keep checking Instagram? Maybe I should check Snapchat or Tiktok. I couldn't do this. I took a deep breath and decided I needed something to take my mind off this. I went on Netflix and watched an episode of Jeopardy to try and distract myself.
"What is Bridget Jones' Diary?" I said, getting the answer for the final Jeopardy, but that didn't even take my mind off of what Aaron might be doing right now. And who he might be doing it with.
I debated calling Nicole or Amelia. I knew they would be there for me, but I didn't want them judging Aaron or our relationship. I even picked up my phone and began to draft a text, but I changed my mind and erased it. What could I say? I saw a hot girl kissing Aaron, but it was just on the cheek. Could be innocent right? Maybe she did it and then he told her to get lost.
I went back to Raf's posts. The one with Aaron and Jen/Jane was gone.
~~~~
I didn't see Aaron the following day since we were both working. I worked at least one day on most weekends at my aunt's greenhouse that was just outside of the city, and today, I got the 'behind the scenes' duties, which consisted of doing inventory, unpacking shipments, and getting plants ready to go out in the sales tents. A part of me was glad that I wouldn't have to deal with customers today, but another part, as I was finding out, might have welcomed that distraction. It was mostly me and my own thoughts, and as I was unpacking garden décor from their shipment boxes, my thoughts were spinning out of control.
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.