Two's company, three's a crowd, or so Arie Luyendyk Jr. learned the hard way on Sunday night's finale of "The Bachelorette."
Emily Maynard took her final two guys to meet the parents (in Curacao, no less!), and that was all it took for her to determine that she didn't need a final date with the handsome race car driver. Emily was in love -- and his name was Jef.
Family Matters
After declaring that she was in search of "an exceptional man who will be a great husband and a great dad," Emily's family got a double dose of her boyfriend material. But after meeting both Jef and Arie, her family was no help at all. They were all smitten with both guys. Dad even said he'd be happy to welcome either guy into the family!
As for Emily's six-year old daughter, Ricki, it was another story. After Emily brought her "friend" Jef along for a fun day at the pool with Ricki, she decided then and there that he was the guy for her. She never even let her daughter meet Arie.
Bawling bachelorette
A tearful meeting with host Chris Harrison summed things up: Emily was done. She was head over heels in love with Jef. Her mind was made up, she didn't need any more dates, she didn't want anyone else meeting Ricki, and she didn't know what to do about Arie.
The next day it was breakup time for Arie, despite the fact that he made a love potion for Emily. Can you say awkward? Because it was. Clearly the love potion was missing an ingredient. "I feel so naive," he said. So do we -- for actually believing that she was ever in love with two guys at once.
It feels like the third time
With Arie out of the way, Emily still had one problem. Although she loved Jef madly, she wasn't sure if she was ready to be engaged.
"I don't want to be that girl who gets engaged 15 times," she said. Indeed, her engagement to Jef -- if it were to come to fruition -- would be her third. (Emily's first engagement was to her daughter's father, Ricky Hendrick, and her second was to "Bachelor" star Brad Womack.)
But when Jef popped the question -- and that big Neil Lane diamond -- she said yes.
"I want you to know that what I'm about to ask you aren't just empty words that in a few weeks or a few months or a few years, or even a few decades will be lost," Jef told her. "What I'm about to ask you is a forever thing."
Where Are They Now?
Of course, Jef and Emily's engagement is so two months ago. The live follow-up show, "After The Final Rose," gave viewers an up-to-the-minute update. It also pitted Emily face to face with Arie for the first time since the big breakup day back in Curacao. While the broken-hearted bachelor revealed that he flew to Emily's North Carolina home in search of closure a few months ago, he never actually saw her and instead left his journal on her doorstep. She claims to have never read it.
Next, it was mega mush from the happy couple. Jef and Emily said they are still madly in love and engaged. He plans to move to Charlotte and says there's a wedding in the works. While they declined to put a timetable on the nuptials, Emily did reveal: "I'd love a spring wedding."
In the end, despite promos touting this season's "Bachelorette" finale as "emotional" and "shocking," it's nothing we haven't seen before. Season 6 "Bachelorette" Ali Fedotowsky dumped her number two guy, Chris Lambton, in a similar fashion two years ago.
Up next: A Charleston wedding. Possibly in the spring.
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'The Bachelorette' Premiere: Emily Maynard's Freakiest Suitors
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