She fixed them for free.
So, weird experience at the salon. I went right after work, 5pm, so it was fairly busy. It's a tiny salon, just 3 stations/3 employees, and there were already 4 customers inside. She fixed my toes really quick though and then I was just sitting there letting them dry.
One of the ladies brought another customer over to sit and dry her toes and fingers. She'd just finished her mani; pedi had been first. So she's sitting there, with the little UV light thing on her fingers, for about 10 minutes, and we're kind of chatting a bit on and off. She's about my age. She was telling me how it's her anniversary, and she never paints her nails, but her husband likes it, so she did it today. She kept saying, "yeah, he has a thing for fingers, so I do them for special occasions", almost like it was a fetish.
Then, after about ten minutes, she tested her nails, and they seemed done, so she slipped her sandals on and pulled out her wallet. As the lady came back with her change, the customer went to adjust the back strap on her sandals and accidentally smudged one of her nails against her heel. Normal enough occurrence in a nail salon, right?
Except... she flipped out. I mean, really flipped out. Started yelling a string of curse words a mile long, berating herself. The salon is probably 30 feet square, so pretty close quarters - everyone was just kind of staring at her. She was almost in hysterics. Then, bent over trying to rub the polish off her heel, she started pinching herself on the back of her calf, really hard, with her nails. She was leaving a mark. I almost thought she'd draw blood because she was pinching so hard.
Then all of a sudden (this was all kind of happening on top of each other, very quickly) she was apologizing, and almost crying. So sorry, so sorry that she messed up her nail, so sorry that she'd cursed, so sorry someone needed to fix it, so sorry to distract the employee from another customer's pedicure, so sorry, so sorry... she was crying and whispering by the time the employee brought her over and fixed her nail (which took all of 30 seconds).
You could seriously feel the uncomfortable tension in the room. Everyone was on eggshells. So then she came back and sat by me again, to let her hands dry. She just looked so tired.
I felt bad for her. All I could think was that if she was freaking out at herself, someone else would probably be freaking out at her when she got home.
But on the positive side, my toes look fabulous.