Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia each aimed to learn from the past on Monday night.
“I have been dreading this week because of what happened with Clayton,” Rachel her fellow lead of The Bachelorette Fantasy Suite week, referencing how both women slept with Clayton Echard last year… were told he loved them… and then got unceremoniously dumped a short time later.
“I have been so scared to be honest with them because of how he made me feel in that moment,” she added.
Gabby echoed this sentiment.
“I almost felt like I was manipulated so I never want to make anyone else feel the way that we did,” she said.
So, how did these negative experiences affect the way Gabby and Rachel handled the prospect of bedding various suitors on the latest Bachelorette episode?
Gabby opened Fantasy Suite week on a date with Erich, as the two went to Lover’s Leap and jumped into the water from a number of heights.
The two made out, Erich said his family loved Gabby — and then emphasized that he felt the same way.
“I am in love with you Gabby, and I do not want to leave here without you,” he said on air.
Erich then said “obviously, yes” to staying in the Fantasy Suite with Gabby. They spent the night together and shared breakfast in the morning.
“I am definitely more than falling in love with Erich,” Gabby confessed in an on-camera interview.
“I really think I am in love with him, and I know he deserves to know, but I know how strong those words are.”
Rachel, meanwhile, started Fantasy Suite week off with Aven, sipping champagne on a yacht.
The latter said he could “100 percent” see himself getting engaged to Rachel, assuaging any concerns she had about him.
“I was nervous to say anything back to you just because on my last journey, I feel like that word was really carelessly thrown around,” she said, citing Clayton again.
“And what that word means to me is huge, and of course I know it means the same to you.
“And you would never use that word if you weren’t absolutely feeling it, which is why I’m comfortable saying that I am falling in love with you.”
The pair went into the Fantasy Suite together, and it clearly went well.
“Aven is the full package,” Rachel said afterward.
From there, Rachel and Tino went horseback riding and reflected on the rough hometown date with his family.
“It’s probably not going to be overnight, and I don’t expect your parents to like, love me overnight, but I see you as the future,” Tino said of the uncomfortable meeting.
“There’s no reality here where they don’t get on board.”
Then Tino laid it all out thee.
“I love you, Rachel,” he said. “I’m in love with you. I love everything I find out about you. I feel like it’s overdue, but I’m so happy to say it.”
Recchia dropped the L-Bomb, as well, and the two accepted invitations to the Fantasy Suite.
On her date with Johnny, the aspiring husband said he felt strongly for this Bachelorette, but getting engaged?
“The end result scares me,” he admitted, later attempting to clarify his feelings as follows:
“You’re exactly the person that I want to fall in love with and just be my person forever. But I think I just don’t know if I can get to an engagement in the next week or so.”
This was all Gabby needed to hear in order to send Johnny packing.
“I know there’s something that’s waiting for me that’s really great with Erich or Jason,” she said afterward.
To close the emotional installment out, Erich left Gabby a note that said “I need to see you.”
“I do have one thing I want to tell you,” he then told her.
“On our last date, like the day part was amazing, the night part I couldn’t imagine going any better. And I’m now sitting here picturing all that, like doing that with somebody else.
“That kind of crushes me. This is not going to be easy, but I just want to tell you how I feel because we’re running out of time.”
On a logical level, this response to Gabby sleeping with someone else makes sense.
But… has the guy never seen The Bachelorette before?!?
I feel so frustrated right now,” Gabby told the cameras.
“Erich expressed to me in the Fantasy Suite that this week feels like I’m cheating, and now I feel like we’re rehashing the conversation, and I’m being pressured. And being like, ‘I don’t want you to have what we have with somebody else.’
“That’s not for you to say. You’re here knowing that I could have it with somebody else.”
Gabby didn’t see the need to bring up the topic again.
“We did have this conversation when it was just you and I, and now I can talk to you about it, but then I feel like I would be defending myself,” she told Erich.
“It’s not my intention to have any sort of ultimatum,” he replied.
Although Erich wanted the meetup to end on a positive note, Gabby didn’t perceive it that way.
“My person might not be here,” she concluded to the cameras.
