He kept visiting my salon for someone else

The first time Tom came into my salon, he brought me coffee and kissed me near the front desk.

Two months later, I saw the same coffee sitting beside my youngest nail tech.

That was when I realized he had not been visiting the salon only to see me.

My name is Trish. I am 41 years old, divorced, and I own a nail salon in Huntington Beach, California.

After my divorce, I stopped dating for a long time.

Running a salon took most of my energy. I opened the shop in the morning, handled customer complaints, ordered supplies, managed the schedule, and covered appointments when a worker called out.

By the time I got home, I usually wanted food, a shower, and silence.

I started going to the gym because I needed something in my life that had nothing to do with nails.

That was where I met Tom.

He was using the machine beside me one morning and asked whether I worked nearby.

I told him I owned a nail salon.

He smiled and said he was also in the nail business.

That immediately made conversation easy.

Tom understood why weekends were difficult for me. He understood why I could not always answer my phone. He knew how tiring it was to sit in one position all day and listen to customers complain about tiny details.

He was a nail tech at another salon about twenty minutes away.

He looked younger than his age, stayed in good shape, and always seemed relaxed.

I liked that because my life was usually the opposite.

We exchanged numbers and started texting.

Our first date was simple. We ate dinner after work and talked until the restaurant staff began cleaning around us.

Tom told me he had never married.

He said he had dated several women, but the nail business made relationships difficult because he worked six days a week.

I understood that completely.

For the first few months, everything felt easy.

He brought me lunch when I forgot to eat. He rubbed my shoulders after long Saturdays. He never complained when I had to change our plans because someone called out.

I started thinking maybe meeting another person in the same business was exactly what I needed.

Then he began visiting my salon.

At first, everyone thought it was sweet.

He would stop by when his salon was slow or when he finished early. Sometimes he brought coffee for me. Sometimes he sat near the front and waited until I finished with a customer.

My workers joked that the owner finally had a boyfriend.

I was a little embarrassed, but I also liked it.

After being divorced and alone for years, it felt good to have someone make an effort in front of other people.

One of my nail techs was a woman named Kayla.

She was 27, single, and had worked for me for about eight months.

Kayla was pretty, friendly, and very good with customers. She was also the kind of person who could talk to anybody without making things awkward.

Whenever Tom came in, she greeted him and offered him a chair.

I did not think anything of it.

He was my boyfriend, and she was my employee.

One afternoon, Tom arrived while I was in the back dealing with a supply delivery.

When I returned to the front, he was standing beside Kayla’s station, laughing with her.

The moment he saw me, he walked over and kissed my cheek.

It looked innocent.

Still, something about the way Kayla suddenly became quiet stayed in my mind.

I asked Tom later what they had been discussing.

He said they were talking about a difficult customer.

I believed him.

A few weeks later, Kayla started asking more questions about him.

She wanted to know how long we had been together.

She asked whether we were serious.

She also asked whether Tom had ever been married.

I teased her and said she sounded like she was doing a background check.

She laughed and changed the subject.

Then Tom began bringing coffee for everyone.

He said it felt rude to bring only one drink when several workers were there.

That sounded thoughtful.

But I noticed he always knew Kayla’s exact order.

At first, I assumed she had told him while he was visiting.

Then one day, he brought her a drink with less ice and a different type of milk.

Kayla had never ordered it that way in front of me.

I asked how he knew.

Tom said she had mentioned it before.

Kayla immediately looked down at her table.

That small moment made my stomach tighten.

I did not accuse either of them.

I started watching.

Tom visited most often on days when Kayla worked.

If she was off, he rarely stayed long.

When she walked toward the back room, his eyes followed her.

If she laughed with a male customer, Tom became unusually quiet.

The worst part was that he still treated me well.

He called me every night.

He stayed at my place.

He talked about taking a trip together.

Nothing had clearly changed between us, which made me wonder whether I was imagining everything.

Then Kayla requested a Saturday off.

That was unusual because Saturdays were our busiest days.

She said she needed to attend a family event in Los Angeles.

I approved it because she rarely asked for time off.

Tom also told me that week that he had to attend his cousin’s birthday on Saturday.

I noticed the coincidence, but I did not say anything.

On Saturday morning, one of my regular customers arrived and showed me a picture on her phone.

She had been at a restaurant in Long Beach the night before and thought she had seen my boyfriend.

In the background of the picture, Tom was sitting across from a woman.

I could not see the woman’s full face, but I recognized her purse.

It belonged to Kayla.

I had seen it beside her station every day for months.

My hands started shaking, but I finished the customer’s nails.

I did not call Tom.

I did not call Kayla.

I waited until Monday.

Tom came to my apartment Sunday night and acted completely normal.

He said the family party had been boring.

He even showed me pictures of his cousin and several relatives.

For one moment, I thought maybe I had made a mistake.

Then I noticed the shirt he was wearing in the family pictures.

It was not the same shirt he wore in the restaurant photo.

He had gone somewhere else before or after the party.

On Monday morning, Kayla came to work looking tired.

I asked her whether the family event had gone well.

She said yes, but she could not look at me.

I waited until the salon was empty and called her into my office.

I placed the restaurant photo on the desk.

Her face lost all its color.

She began crying before I asked a single question.

Kayla admitted that Tom had been messaging her for almost two months.

At first, she ignored him.

Then he told her that our relationship was casual and that I was also seeing other people.

He said I only called him my boyfriend because I did not want the salon staff asking questions about my personal life.

None of that was true.

Kayla said she finally agreed to have dinner with him because he kept telling her I knew and did not care.

I asked whether anything physical had happened.

She looked at the floor.

That was enough of an answer.

I felt angry at both of them, but mostly I felt stupid.

Tom had been walking into my business, kissing me in front of everyone, and then waiting for a chance to speak privately with my employee.

He did not have to hide across town.

I had been opening the door for him.

That evening, I asked Tom to meet me at the salon after closing.

He arrived carrying flowers.

I think he already knew something was wrong.

Kayla was still there.

The second Tom saw both of us standing together, he stopped smiling.

He tried to explain that he had feelings for both of us.

He said he never planned for it to happen.

Then he said Kayla understood him in a different way.

I almost laughed when he said that.

They both worked as nail techs. Of course she understood his work.

So did I.

That was how he had become close to me in the first place.

I asked him whether he had told Kayla that I dated other men.

He admitted it.

Then I asked whether he had told me that Kayla was interested in him.

He said he did not want to create problems at my salon.

That was the most ridiculous thing he said all night.

He had already created the problem.

He just did not want me to know about it.

I told Tom to leave.

Then I told Kayla to take the next two days off because I needed time to decide whether we could continue working together.

She apologized repeatedly.

She said she had believed him in the beginning, but later she suspected he was lying and continued seeing him anyway.

I appreciated that she finally told the truth, but it did not erase what happened.

Kayla resigned before I made a decision.

She sent me a message saying she was too ashamed to return and face the other workers.

Tom continued calling me for weeks.

He said Kayla had also stopped speaking to him.

He wanted another chance because he had lost both of us.

I told him losing both women did not make him loyal to either one.

It only meant his plan had failed.

I have not dated anyone since.

Sometimes I still see Tom at nail supply stores or industry events.

He always tries to approach me like enough time has passed for us to be friendly.

I keep walking.

The strangest part is that I once believed his visits to my salon showed how serious he was about me.

Now I understand why he always seemed so happy to wait there.

I was working ten feet away while he looked for his next date.