22 Moments From ‘The Bachelor’ That Made It Totally Obvious Lauren and Arie Are Endgame

We didn’t actually see Lauren and Arie’s first meeting.

The 26-year-old’s limo entrance only lasted about two seconds as part of a too-many-Laurens style gag.

But when she walked inside, it was clear it had gone well.

Lauren was absolutely beaming — and we found out later that the picture frame we can see tucked under her arm was actually a picture of herself and Arie from when she’d met him at a race way before he was ever going to be the bachelor.

And she nabbed a rose to seal the deal.

It was a solid, middle-of-the-pack rose, but it cemented that there was more to Lauren and Arie as a couple than what initially met the eye (which, in episode one, was pretty much nothing).

In Paris, he saved the first one-on-one date just for her.

It took a while for the couple to get some significant alone time, but Arie had planned it out strategically, waiting for them to visit the city of love so he could take her on a magical, fantasy date.

Normally guarded Lauren didn’t seem to have a care in the world.

And when she told Arie, “all the girls are really jealous,” and he just said, “That’s okay,” we melted. In that moment, it really felt like Lauren was the only girl on the whole show. “My intuition with Lauren’s always been that we’re going to have something special,” Arie told the cameras. “And even though I don’t know much about her, just spending time with her makes me really happy.”

We also discovered that they laugh exactly the same way.

And if this wasn’t some kind of sign that they’re meant to be, well, we just don’t know what was.

When they rode horses on the beach, Lauren called it her “happy place.”

She also seemed more herself than we’d seen her in a while. “It’s a really comforting feeling to be back home,” she told the cameras. “This is honestly, like, my happy place,” she admitted to Arie after he called it the “perfect day.”

She also admitted that she could see him being her future husband.

After she told him in Tuscany that she was falling in love with him — and him sharing that he returned the feeling — it felt like they were both feeling a lot more than they were ready to say.

During fantasy suites, Lauren’s walls were back up again.

Arie, however, was able to talk her back down and comfort her. And though he worried to the cameras that they were losing time they could use getting to know each other by wasting it on reassurances, he knew exactly what to say to her.

The way that he looked at her said it all.

“I feel like you know where we’re at… Don’t you?” Arie asked Lauren, and we should’ve known then and there if we didn’t already. “I see a potential in you being my wife,” he told her — and to the cameras he admitted, “I do love her and I think we could be amazing.”

But then he went ahead and actually said it all, too.

“I just want you to know that, you know, that night in Tuscany was really huge for me,” he shared with her. “It was the first time I really felt those emotions I hadn’t felt in a long time. It’s just kind of crazy how — how quick and how hard I fell for you. And it just makes me happy because you’re here. And I want you to know that I do feel confident in all of this because I love you… I would hate to lose you.”

Later in the night, he had even more to say.

“I wanted these feelings again,” he admitted. “I just didn’t know if I could feel them. And then I did with you. You made me happy.” How could we have ever questioned that it would be anyone else in the end? “I want this to work with her,” Arie told cameras. “Because I’m in love with her.”

When Lauren met his family, she seemed to share a special connection with his mom.

She was able to open up to the woman in a way we hadn’t really seen her do before, even crying while she talked to someone who was a near stranger. “I’m surprised by myself,” she said. “I’m not used to talking about feelings, so I’m surprised I was able to express how much I love Arie and the things I love about him. I just felt comfortable around [his family].”

And Arie’s mom seemed to sense that she was the one.

“It breaks my heart to see you this way,” she told Lauren as the younger woman wiped away tears. “You have to see it out, I guess. And that’s the hard part. I really feel for you, but I really think you should stay positive… Just stick with that.”

Arie seemed heartbroken when his family suggested he pick Becca.

When Arie Sr. suggested that she was “more suitable” to his lifestyle and more likely to give him the kick in the pants that he needed, he seemed disappointed more than anything else. Though he’d already talked about being confused about who he should pick, this was the first moment that he really seemed to waver — and in doing so seemed to reaffirm his feelings for Lauren.

Even during their breakup, there was clearly so much love.

As Arie walked Lauren out, we couldn’t help but notice that he was holding her hand to his heart as if he wasn’t ready to let her go. And when he’d let go and then reach for her hand again over and over, she clung right back to him.

They couldn’t stop holding each other even after Arie tried to let her down gently.

“It kills me… to say goodbye to someone that I’m in love with,” he told cameras. And to her, he said, “I wanted it so bad for us. But there was something that was holding me back.” For the first time, Arie was getting a taste of the fear that Lauren had been experiencing all season. But this was clearly not the posture of two people who were breaking up.

He even kissed her goodbye.

Sure, it was likely on the cheek, but it looks a little too close to her mouth. Add in the fact that he told her, “I love you,” even as he said goodbye and walked her to the car and it was clear that neither of these two were ready to let go of their feelings yet.

When they saw each other again, they couldn’t control themselves.

Lauren leaped into his arms pretty much the second that she swung the door open — and though Arie was nervous to see her after all the heartbreak, it was clear how she felt.

This time, Lauren wasn’t afraid of anything.

Despite building up walls to protect herself that she had to try and carefully dismantle while he was dating other people, once he was all in, so was she — despite the fact that he’d already dumped her once. The guarded Lauren of the past was gone in a second. This time, she was all love and trust.

And, of course, there was that proposal.

At the end of the season, the lead always feels pressure to propose — whether they’re ready or not. But when Arie proposed to Lauren, it was because he finally was both sure and ready, and so was she.

And he did it all for her.

Some fans may have thought it was inconsiderate for the couple to get engaged right after it’s revealed that Arie dumped Becca (and on camera, too), but the bachelor was more than happy to risk his reputation to give Lauren the proposal he thought she deserved. And if that’s not love, well, we don’t know what is.

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