“My problem is I always make sure everyone else is good,” Selling the OC star Kayla Cardona tells Tudum. It’s the kind of thing Kayla wishes she could have said during Season 1 of the real estate reality show, as drama erupts in her Oppenheim Group office. 

Kayla's Behavior Triggers Polly | 'Selling The OC' S1E5 Did Kayla try to kiss Tyler?

In Episode 5, Kayla finds herself in the eye of a storm following an off-camera night out on the town with her co-workers. In the morning, co-worker Tyler, who is married to actor Brittany Snow, says Kayla “genuinely tried to kiss” him. Polly alleges she directly witnessed these alleged attempts by Kayla “twice” and Austin claims Kayla told Tyler that “no one has to know” about the would-be infidelity. It is that final detail that sends shock waves throughout the O Group’s Orange County crew. 

Kayla denies the accusations throughout the rest of the season, and still does to this day. Instead, she paints a different story.  

“[What] I would love for my fans to know about the incident is that nothing has ever happened or even come close to it,” says Kayla about whether or not she tried to kiss her colleague. During the night in question, she says the cast of “strong personalities” was “having fun.” Drinks were involved. “We're all crazy,” Kayla says. “One thing leads to another and we all get very flirtatious with each other. And me being a single woman for a very long time, I felt some sort of reciprocation from Tyler flirting back.” 

After all Kayla says, she has flirted with everyone on Selling the OC. “People don't know me yet and they don't understand my humor,” she explains. “I've done that with [co-worker] Sean]. I've done that with some of the girls. When there's too much alcohol, I do get very overly social and loving and stuff like that.” So, according to Kayla, when she told Tyler “no one has to know,” it wasn’t a serious — or shadowy — proposition. “I’m just being funny and I’m being extra-friendly,” Kayla promises. “I am not a home-wrecker and I am not a husband fucker.” 

Still, the Selling the OC cast turns on Kayla over the supposed incident. Kayla and Polly eventually have a disagreement about it in the O Group office’s “vault.” Alex says there’s “no redemption” from what Kayla has allegedly done. Everyone, save for Alexandra Rose and Alexandra Jarvis, gossip about the kerfuffle. “Everyone else wants to put all the blame on me. No one else is innocent, I'll make that real clear,” Kayla says. 

“I think they reacted from a place of guilt and they wanted to put all that heat on me because they know they're guilty themselves,” she continues. “I haven't done half of the shit that they've done. And I'm also talking about off-camera.” 

Kayla is so confident in her innocence, she would be “more than happy” to speak with Tyler’s wife, Brittany, about the drama (they have never spoken to date). “I would love to talk to her myself if that would make her feel better,” Kayla says. She emphasizes that she and Tyler are “great.” As viewers see in Episode 6, Kayla and Tyler cleared the air before filming ended. He even comes to her defense amid the claustrophobic infighting at the finale boat party. 

“We’ve been over it. We’ve been done,” Kayla says. “But everyone else seems to keep going about it. So hopefully they'll eventually move on.”