Bachelor in Paradise couple Kendall Long and Joe Amabile decided to call it quits during the fifth season's penultimate episode on Monday night, but that may not have been the end of their romantic relationship.
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Kendall broke up with Joe during Monday night's episode after he admitted he was falling in love with her since the beginning of the season and could picture them getting engaged.
RELATED LINK: 'BACHELOR IN PARADISE' SPOILERS: WHO GOT ENGAGED ON SEASON 5?! WHICH COUPLES ARE STILL TOGETHER AND DATING?
"I felt an immediate regret as soon as Joe walked away," Kendall admitted to People.
Kendall found herself making a series of excuses on the beach as to why they wouldn't work together, but Joe called her out for simply being unaware of her feelings for him or not reciprocating them at all.
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Joe therefore left Paradise confused and heartbroken, while Kendall clearly felt there was more she could have said and the pair had unfinished business.
"I kept running away from the fact that I was falling for him," Kendall explained. "I went into Paradise thinking you need to date, you need to be open-minded, you need to experience people. So I thought I can't cling to one person the entire time."
The 26-year-old taxidermy-loving bachelorette from Los Angeles, CA, continued, "I also had so much fear about getting hurt. My fear was thinking, okay it's great on Paradise, but it freaked me out to think I would invest myself in him and then it would break apart after the romantic beach vacation was over."
Kendall then teased that her flame with the Chicago-based grocer might not have ever burned out.
"On the plane leaving I was like, 'What the hell did I just do?' I wanted to run after him, and I didn't. And that is something I do regret. But where Joe and I ended on the beach is definitely not the end of our story. There's a lot that happens on the reunion!" Kendall teased.
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As for Joe's side of the story, the 31-year-old kind-hearted bachelor told People that he was "planning on leaving [Paradise] as a couple."
"I was blindsided. I was very upset about it because I still had really strong feelings for her," Joe confessed of Kendall.
Joe clarified, however, he was just "joking" about proposing marriage to Kendall at the end of the show when he mentioned it the night before their unexpected breakup.
"Being engaged wasn't something I was planning to do at the end of it," Joe revealed to the magazine. "I would have felt that would have been forced. I didn't think we were there yet, though I did feel we were there to leave as a couple."
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Joe also apparently buys Kendall's story that she was afraid of falling in love with him and that's why she ended things so abruptly.
"I think the idea of me always scared her," Joe reasoned. "We are polar opposites, totally different people. I'm not like anybody she's ever dated and vice versa. I think she was probably just scared that it was real."
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To read spoilers on what happened between Kendall and Joe after filming the spinoff, click here.
The finale of Bachelor in Paradise is set to air on Tuesday night from 8-10PM ET/PT on ABC.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski