Who will get the girl: Josh Murray or Nick Viall?
No, we haven't time-traveled back to 2014, when the two men were finalists on Andi Dorfman's season of The Bachelorette, with Josh ultimately getting engaged to her. (They split less than a year later.) To say things were less than friendly between Josh and Nick is a bit of an understatement, and on Monday's episode of Bachelor in Paradise, they once again found themselves competing for the rose of the same woman, this time it was Amanda Stanton.
"I was more or less indifferent," Nick told E! News of how he felt once he saw Josh walking down the steps into Paradise in the second episode. "Josh and I certainly didn't have relationship. We're not friends, but I don't have any feelings about Josh one way or the other. I was more or less indifferent. I think a lot of people made a big deal about some rivalry that didn't really exist. I think you'll find when you watch the season that Josh maybe had a different feeling about it."
Nick went on to say that viewers' perception of Josh, who was a fan-favorite during Andi's season, "might go one way from the other" as the season goes on, saying, "Sometimes that atmosphere can play with your ego a little bit and it might've played with his." Things already got tense between Nick and Josh by the end of the episode, when Nick confronted Josh for pursuing Amanda knowing he has already gone on a date with her. (After the episode aired, Josh tweeted, "Bahahahaha that whole nick vs me talk when I returned from my date was cut up so much, cracks me up if y'all only knew what was said.")
While Amanda seems to have chosen Josh, she won't be the only cause for tension between the two men as Andi's tell-all book, It's Not Okay: Turning Heartbreak Into Happily Never After, will continue to be addressed throughout the season. In the book, Andi revealed a lot of information about her relationship with Josh, claiming he sometimes acted like an "emotional abuser" and detailed his jealous behavior.
When Amanda asked Josh about the book, he said it was "a fictional story," and the single mother from Ben Higgins' season believed him. Nick? Not so much, as Andi also wrote a lot about Nick, including when he infamously revealed during the After the Final Rose special that they had sex in the fantasy suite, and their surprise encounter after her split with Josh.
"It's not my favorite book," Nick said, but explained that there is truth to what Andi wrote, even if it's not the whole truth in his eyes.
"I'm familiar with the book, I'm in it a little bit. I don't know Andi to be the most honest person. What Andi does is she has a tendency of omitting information," he said. "That being said, the things that are written about me, as far as like the events that happened and things that were said, a large part of it did happen, so I can't say that it's a fictional book. It might be missing some information, but a lot of the things she wrote about did happen, I think Josh would want you to believe that it's a totally fictional book, and it's hard for me knowing what's written about it me and what happened that it is fictional. So I think that conversation will come up."
And the topic of Josh's "temperament in relationships" will also come up amongst the BIP cast members, Nick previewed. "Some of the things that she wrote about Josh, with regards to how he is in relationships, his temperament in relationships, and some of those attributes that he displayed in a relationship, you might see this season," he explained. "And I think those are some of the concerns that people had about him as they watched his relationships unfold."
As for Josh's portrayal on Bachelor in Paradise this season, Nick predicted, "I think Andi will like watching it."
To hear more from Nick on his rivalry with Josh, watch our interview with him above.
Bachelor in Paradise airs Mondays and Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on ABC.