The town was small, small enough to feel like a village.
And yes, you’re right, everybody really did know everybody else’s business, and a lot of the time, their personal affairs. It’s probably best if people’s names are kept out of this narrative. The situation was fairly straight forward. The salesman that worked in the car yard was very much the type of man who liked to keep himself to himself. Despite this, it would be completely obvious to just about any old bystander that for a number of years he’d been infatuated with the woman that managed the only ladies hair salon in town. She had built her business up to a point where she had a regular customer base. It just so happened that for some considerable time she’d been engaged to the local dentist, who just happened to be the brother of the car salesman. The salesman had never shared his feelings for the owner of the salon, with the single exception of the barman at the golf club.
In fact, the salesman, who as stated was really quite shy, would clumsily try to give the impression that he had lots of girlfriends. Bragging about these was his attempt to cover up the fact that he was in love with the hairdresser. Not many people were taken in by this act, except the barman, who had his doubts about the salesman, ever since they were at school together and the man who sold cars was just a little too keen to dress up and play the part of Tinkerbell, the fairy from the magic wood, in the school play.
One may very well ask, was this a really complex love triangle?
Apparently not. The story ends when the car salesman, the lady who ran the hairdressers and the dentist, all got together one evening in the bar of the local golf club, where they had an open discussion, carried out in a manner the was both mature and polite that fixed the whole thing up!
The barman had nothing to do with it.