Sunshine Nails : A Novel

Contents Cover Title Page Dedication Chapter One: Debbie Chapter Two: Jessica Chapter Three: Dustin Chapter Four: Phil Chapter Five: Thuy Chapter Six: Dustin Chapter Seven: Debbie Chapter Eight: Phil Chapter Nine: Jessica Chapter Ten: Dustin Chapter Eleven: Debbie Chapter Twelve: Phil Chapter Thirteen: Dustin Chapter Fourteen: Jessica Chapter Fifteen: Thuy Chapter Sixteen: Jessica Chapter Seventeen: Dustin Chapter Eighteen: Debbie Chapter Nineteen: Jessica Chapter Twenty: Phil Chapter Twenty-One: Thuy Chapter Twenty-Two: Dustin Chapter Twenty-Three: Debbie Chapter Twenty-Four: Phil Chapter Twenty-Five: Debbie Chapter Twenty-Six: Phil Chapter Twenty-Seven: Jessica Chapter Twenty-Eight: Debbie Chapter Twenty-Nine: Phil Chapter Thirty: Debbie Chapter Thirty-One: Phil Chapter Thirty-Two: Jessica Chapter Thirty-Three: Dustin Chapter Thirty-Four: Thuy Chapter Thirty-Five: Jessica Chapter Thirty-Six: Thuy Chapter Thirty-Seven: Dustin Chapter Thirty-Eight: Debbie Chapter Thirty-Nine: Phil Chapter Forty: Jessica Chapter Forty-One: Phil Chapter Forty-Two: Dustin Chapter Forty-Three: Thuy Chapter Forty-Four: Jessica Chapter Forty-Five: Debbie Acknowledgments Reading Group Guide About the Author Copyright Guide Cover Start of Content Title Page Dedication Acknowledgments About the Author Copyright I II III V VI 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 
 
 “Mai Nguyan has proven herself to be a real standout.” —Taylor Jenkins Reid
 Sunshine Nails
 A Novel
 Mai Nguyen
 
 
 
 
 
 For Gemma,
 my little sunshine
 
 
 CHAPTER ONE Debbie
 If Debbie Tran could go back in time, she would stop herself from reading that damn Yelp review.
 It had been such a lovely day up until that point. She’d made offerings of mandarins and daffodils to the altar, cooked all her family’s favorites, and cleaned the entire house. In a few hours, her eldest child would be coming home for good. Nobody in the family knew exactly why, but it didn’t take a genius to figure it out. Eight years ago, Jessica moved to Los Angeles for love and a job, and now she had neither. Whatever the reason, Debbie didn’t care. She was so thrilled Jessica was returning that she happily paid for the flight.
 Debbie pulled out her tablet and did what she always did whenever her children got on a plane: tracked the path of the flight. As she watched that little green plane inch closer and closer to Toronto, that’s when that stupid notification popped up at the top of the screen.
 
 You’ve received a new review.
 
 Without thinking, Debbie clicked on it and a big fat one-star review appeared on the screen.
 
 I came to the salon for a manicure and pedicure on the weekend. The lady who was working on me was SO rude and she had disgusting black gunk underneath her fingernails. They were so long and unkempt. It was gross. She also cut my nails too short when I specifically told her “not too short.” She doesn’t speak English that well so she probably didn’t understand me. Still, SO UNPROFESSIONAL. I’m never going back again!!! Can’t wait till that new salon opens nearby. Bet it’s light years better than this one!
 
 Debbie looked at her nails. Okay, so they were a little dry and her cuticles a little overgrown, but by no means was there any “disgusting black gunk” underneath her nails. She washed her hands so often that cracks had formed on her fingertips. Besides, in her twenty years of running the salon, not one single person had ever complained about this.
 And what was this about a new salon? There was no other nail salon in the area for miles. This person had to have been mistaken. Debbie checked their overall rating. The review dropped Sunshine Nails from four stars to three stars.
 That bitch.
 She checked the flight status again. Jessica’s plane was going to land any minute now. It would take her another hour or so to get through customs, baggage claim, and traffic on the highway. Phil and Thuy were still at the salon. Dustin would be home from work soon. She needed to fix herself up. Wash her hair, put on some makeup, pick an outfit that—
 Not too short? How dare that person assume she didn’t know English. She’d lived in Toronto for over thirty years, took ESL for those first two, and aced all the tests. In fact, she did so well she was invited to come back as