Um, When Did Colton Date Becca's BFF Tia?

Even though The Bachelorette just started, there's already some drama about this season's contestants. Namely, with Colton Underwood, who apparently dated one of Becca's friends from last season, Tia Booth. When did Colton from The Bachelorette date Tia from Becca's season of The Bachelor? This could cause some trouble within the mansion — and with Becca and Tia's friendship.

Bachelor franchise alums dating each other is nothing new. Heck, just a couple weeks ago Ashley Iaconetti and Jared Haibon announced they were dating three years after their first on-screen encounter on Bachelor in Paradise. This usually happens, though, after the contestants go on the show, not before. For viewers who missed last Bachelor season, Tia was a contestant who, along with Becca, competed for Arie Luyendyk's heart. Funnily enough, Tia herself had a connection to the Bachelor world before she was on the show as well: Tia is best friends with Raven Gates, who was on Nick's season of The Bachelor in 2017. Raven finished in second place — and later found the love of her life, Adam Gottschalk, on Bachelor in Paradise.

Tia herself didn't make it as far as Raven did on her season — as we all know what went down with that final two — and jury's still out whether she'll be on the next round of Bachelor in Paradise. But it seems that she doesn't need to jet off to a Mexican resort to mingle with the men on Becca's season, because she and Colton have apparently already dated.

Back in April — when The Bachelorette was still in production — Life & Style reported that "a contestant from Becca's season" was sliding into Tia's DMs. In a thread on r/thebachelor subreddit (warning, spoilers!), sleuths said that Raven and Adam appeared on a podcast and spilled some tea about the DMing, but they did not confirm it was Colton. Fans speculated that this will turn out to be a dramatic storyline this season. Reality Steve has also discussed the possibility of Colton/Tia drama (as die-hard fans know, Reality Steve is chock-full of spoilers—so there's a lot of spoilery info for this season here). Now, I take speculations like these with huge grains of salt, but this one actually seems believable. It's possible that Colton (or perhaps another contestant?) didn't think it was a big deal to send a quick DM. (Of course, they're 100% wrong. DMs are huge, especially in Bachelor Nation).

This is 2018, people: fans can't dig up dirt on the internet without the show's lead responding. In an interview with ET about the romantic connection between Tia and Colton, Becca said that all will be revealed this season. "Yeah, they did have a past, so that's something Tia and I had conversations about," Becca told ET. "They dated. I don't know how serious it was, but you'll see all of that unfold throughout the season as well."

Despite this former connection, Becca also talked about her romantic connection with Colton from the start. "Colton, night one, I remember thinking how big of a heart he had," Becca recalled. "What really drew me to him that first night was the fact that he had started a nonprofit [for cystic fibrosis], and that's something near and dear to my heart because two of my cousins have it. So night one, I felt like we really connected over that." So, she didn't reveal any information about whether Colton will be sent home for this (as if she would), but what's interesting is that not only did she confirm the rumors, but she also said it will be discussed on the show. For fans like me who like to see the drama happen in real time (or at least, as it airs in real time...) this is definitely something to look forward to.