Do Our Eyes Deceive Us, or Did We Just See Kate Chastain and Ashton Pienaar Kissing?!

Things are about to majorly heat up on Below Deck. Not only will we be treated to a shirtless deck crew dinner, which includes an appearance by Brian de Saint Pern's "penis ravine," but it looks like we're about to witness a steamy makeout session in the upcoming episode on Monday at 9/8c.

At the end of the preview for next week's episode of Below Deck, we see the crew on their night out after crushing another charter. "I like her," Ashton Pienaar says in the sneak peek, appearing to refer to Kate Chastain. "Give me five minutes. I'll consider it."

Cut to a shot that seems to show Kate and Ashton locking lips. And cut back to us fast and furiously wiping our eyes to make sure we're really seeing what we thought we saw, especially since there's going to be fireworks later on between Kate and Ashton (and not the romantic kind), as we've seen in the Season 7 trailer.

We're just going to have to wait until next week's episode of Below Deck to know what's really going on here for sure, but at least we're not alone in our incredulous reaction, as evidenced by Kate and Captain Lee Rosbach's tweets about the moment following the preview.

One fan tried to get to the bottom of it when Ashton appeared on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen on Monday night, asking if the bosun ever hooked up with Kate (clip above). After a bit of a pause and a little shrug of his shoulders, Ashton replied, "Not yet... We'll have to wait and see."

Though his fellow WWHL guest Caroline Rhea didn't believe Ashton, he confirmed that he "never slept with Kate."

This is going to be quite the episode of Below Deck. We can already feel it.

See what else is coming up for the Valor crew, below.

Ashton Pienaar Is Now Down Two Deck Crew Members?!