Nick & Kaitlyn Came Face To Face On 'ATFR'

Even after his second stab at The Bachelorette, it's impossible to think of Nick Viall without remembering his cringeworthy appearance on After The Final Rose last year once Andi Dorfman's season wrapped up. In case you've already forgotten (or your brain is blocking it out to save you from the trauma), Nick famously sat down across from Andi and asked her why she would have sex with him if she wasn't actually in love with him. It's all coming back to you now, isn't it? Something something "Fiance-type stuff", right? So naturally, after last year's ATFR, I was pretty nervous to see Nick face Kaitlyn Bristowe after she chose Shawn Booth over him.

So what's the verdict? Did Nick give us a repeat of last season, or has he actually learned his lesson from the backlash he received after calling Andi out so crassly? He handled the whole thing way better than he did the first time around. Because once Kaitlyn came out, she and Nick were surprisingly civil toward each other, and their conversation started out as friendly as it could be, considering the circumstances.

First, Nick expanded a little on their texting relationship that took place before the show started filming, and Nick explained that he still couldn't get Kaitlyn out of his head even after she became the Bachelorette — and Kaitlyn maintained that even though it was "excruciating" to let Nick go, but that her feelings for Shawn were just way stronger than what she felt for him.

Things didn't get hairy 'til Nick confronted Kaitlyn about the way she chose to break his heart, and he wishes she would've broken things off before it came to the whole limo and rose ceremony thing. He said:

That day, you wake up and you think, you have all these reasons to be confident. Knowing our preexisting relationship and the things we talked about, talking about how Andi let me go ... I think what i meant in that moment, those words I said to you ... I show up and I start talking and I pause and you kinda let me continue, and those words I said to you, once you heard them, they were no longer meant for you ... Those words I said, I'll never have them back.

Nick's not wrong, even if those words were hard for Kaitlyn to hear. And even better? They ended their conversation on a positive note, so it definitely sounds like they aren't the "bitter rivals" Chris Harrison referenced them as in the beginning of ATFR. Yay for human growth!

Image: Rick Rowell/ABC