Blake Horstmann is laying it alllllll out there when it comes to his now-single-again ex, Becca Kufrin.

In case you forgot/all the seasons of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette have merged together into one wine drunk monster in your head, Blake was the runner-up (and, for most of the season, the assumed frontrunner) when Becca was handing out roses as the lead of season 14 of The Bachelorette. Becca ultimately chose Garrett Yrigoyen and the pair got engaged in the season’s finale. Last fall, Becca and Garrett ended their engagement and this summer, she’s returning to Bachelor Nation as a contestant on Bachelor in Paradise.

In a new interview for the Real Life with Kate Casey podcast, Blake (who made a pretty disastrous appearance on BiP himself during the show’s sixth season in 2019) revealed that, in between Becca’s breakup and her decision to officially commit to Paradise, they were back in touch.

“We did kind of chat here and there, and we were back in touch within the last, like, six months,” Blake said (per People), adding that “it kind of came down to if she was going to do Paradise or not.”

Blake said he was shocked when Becca and Garrett split and that the news of their breakup prompted him to reexamine his feelings for Becca and “wonder if there’s anything still there.”

Don’t get your heart set on a Becca/Blake reunion just yet, though. Even though Blake said “would be willing to talk” to Becca if she wanted to consider rekindling their relationship, there are a couple of roadblocks in the way. First, and most obviously, he’s waiting to see “how Paradise works out” for her in the romance department. Then, there’s a nagging worry Blake has that the Bachelor Powers That Be would be against (and maybe sabotage? It’s not clear from his quotes, TBH) any attempts at a romance.

“The show doesn’t like me, the show doesn’t want to see us together,” he said, which could be a problem since he describes the Bachelor franchise as being “kind of her life” right now. “She has, like, the ABC podcast [Bachelor Happy Hour]. That’s kind of her thing. She is very much involved in that show. We’ll see.”

Still, even with three years of hindsight under his belt, Blake reiterated that he’s sure he was truly in love with Becca during their Bachelorette season. So…you never know?

“I was in love, and I’m not afraid to admit that,” he said. “I think some guys also—and women, for that matter—have a sense of pride like, ‘No, I wasn’t in love because I got dumped,’ or whatever, like, ‘I wasn’t really in love.’ I’m comfortable enough to be like, ‘I was in love. And I got dumped, and that happens.’ But no, I definitely thought she was the one, and it just didn’t work out.”

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