Christmas Abbott and Paul Abrahamian had a fun and flirty relationship on Big Brother, but it never seemed to progress to a romantic stage or showmance. So how does Christmas feel about the returning player?
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When asked whether she'd be open to dating Paul outside the Big Brother house, Christmas shared with Us Weekly, "Yeah."
Despite having "no idea" what's going on between them, the 35-year-old fitness enthusiast from North Carolina definitely seems to have feelings for the 24-year-old musician and clothing designer from California.
"You're spending 92 days with somebody and I think we had a real connection Night 1," Christmas explained.
Christmas, however, never told Paul how she felt about him.
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"We had a game to play," she noted of the CBS reality competition series, which just wrapped with a live two-hour finale on September 20.
"We developed a really true friendship and I think that it's special in its own way," Christmas continued when talking about Paul.
"The Big Brother house is different from the real world so we haven't talked, we haven't seen each other, it's been a whirlwind. I have no idea. There are things that were happening in life before and things that are happening in life after and who is to say. I'm coming out of the house without expectations, so I have no idea."
Christmas' comments would seem to confirm that her engagement to Geoff Kercher ended some time before she entered the Big Brother house this season.
Christmas announced her engagement on Instagram in October 2016, and according to the former couple's website on The Knot, they originally set a wedding date for September 3, 2017 in Raleigh, NC.
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Christmas finished Season 19 of Big Brother in third place behind runner-up Paul and the winner Josh Martinez.
Christmas injured her foot at the very beginning of the season during a piggyback ride on Jason Dent's back, but she decided to re-enter the Big Brother house and resume competing after a brief exit to undergo surgery.
Although she had to sit out many competitions and live in the house with a big cast, she told Us that she does not regret her return "at all" -- "not for one minute."
"There is no way and no how in my life I would ever regret that decision. If they had deemed it impossible for me to come back that would have been the most devastating thing that has happened to me. CBS and Big Brother believed in me enough to allow me to stay and there was no way that I was going to let them down or myself or my fanbase," Christmas explained.
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"Life is going to be sh-tty sometimes and it's going to get even sh-ttier. It's how you decide how to deal with it. I wanted to play Big Brother and I wanted to go as far as I possibly could. And unfortunately it wasn't Final 2, because I do believe that I would have won."
Christmas admitted she was "shocked" and "disappointed" that Josh didn't keep his word about taking her to the end, but at the same time, she understood the game move and ultimately wasn't shocked he won the whole game.
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"I'm so proud of him... [and] I'm not angry at all. That's not even a possibility," Christmas gushed, without revealing whether she would have taken Josh to the Final 2 had she won the final Head of Household competition.
"I refused to make that decision until I needed to in that moment because I really didn't want that emotional burden. And fortunately, I wasn't given that opportunity... I wanted to make sure that I had a clear understanding and make sure that I didn't promise something that I couldn't deliver. I never made that decision and I'm upset but also grateful that I didn't have to make that decision. I'm still not going to make that decision."
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Christmas was the last woman standing on Big Brother's nineteenth season, telling Us that being so close to victory was "really hard and really painful" but she's happy with the way she played.
Christmas also insisted her vote for Paul to win over Josh was "an absolute last-minute decision" based on the fact Paul had played "the sh-t out of that game from Day 1."
RELATED LINK: PAUL ABRAHAMIAN: I THOUGHT I'D PROBABLY BEAT JOSH MARTINEZ IN A 6-3 'BIG BROTHER' VOTE, ALEX OW BROKE HER WORD TO ME
At the end of the day, Christmas is happy for her friends -- as Josh won $500,000 through a 5-4 jury vote and Paul walked away with the $50,000 consolation prize -- but her heart is "a little broken" over leaving Big Brother with nothing but friendship.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski