And then there were two...
Brendan Morais is out. The man who earned Tayshia Adams' first one-on-one date on The Bachelorette eliminated himself on Monday night's episode, before she could offer him the chance to take their relationship to the next level in the fantasy suite.
After a date checking out rings with Neil Lane (during which Brendan looked the most uncomfortable a contestant has ever looked on this show), Brendan and Tayshia sat down for a romantic dinner. That's where Tayshia shared her feelings, and Brendan revealed he couldn't reciprocate.
Tayshia began the conversation by admitting to Brendan that after their first one-on-one, she knew she could "totally see myself marrying him at the end of this." "That made me so excited, but I just feel like I've been lost... I don't know where you are," she shared.
"I completely agree with you as far as the moment you stepped in front of me and I laid eyes on you, this entire experience for me completely shifted," Brendan said. "But today definitely reinforced the gravity of that moment and giving someone that engagement ring is giving them eternity with you, in a certain sense, and this is a forever moment. I don't take that lightly at all, and I'm not going to lie, this has been a challenging past couple days and weeks for me."
Brendan continued, expressing that he thought he was ready to take the next step.
"I want a wife and kids and a family more than anything on the face of this earth. But then coming to the realization that there's a big part of me that's still broken," he said, alluding to his divorce from his high school sweetheart. "There's a big part of me that still needs time to heal. There's a big part of me that needs time to grow, because I still think there are pieces of myself I need to pick up. And all I want is to give my whole heart, but as I sit here today, my heart isn't whole."
"And it really breaks my heart, because you deserve a man that is complete and you deserve a man who is healed from his past. And unfortunately right now I'm not that man," Brendan added. "So, I'm so sorry."
Tayshia didn't shed a tear as she processed Brendan's words, and told him that while she might have been "really pissed off" at him in the past, she understands where he's coming from, "because we both have been married before."
"And as much as I would love to be with you at the end of all this, if you're not ready, that's not something I'm going to push you to do. I've already fought for someone to try and love me once, I'm not going to do it again," she said. "I don't know what else to say. Can I walk you out?"
With that, Tayshia walked Brendan to his car, and prepared to say goodbye.
"I'm sad," she confessed to the camera. "Brendan is definitely someone I saw a future with, and I really thought I was going to be with him. I really thought I was going to end up with Brendan. He's been a person every single day that I've been like, 'It's Brendan.' Every single day. Since our first one-on-one, he's the one that made me put my walls down. I just felt, like, safe with him."
Tayshia cried as she gave Brendan one last hug and closed the book on their future together.
"Tayshia told me that she really could picture me as her husband at the end of this, she could picture a life with me," Brendan told the camera. "That is really the first time she's expressed that to me, so it makes it that much harder."
"Me not being ready comes at a huge price, giving up the opportunity to have a future with Tayshia, and me ending something really special before it started," he said, wiping his tears away. "Seeing Tayshia that upset was devastating."
The season finale of The Bachelorette airs Monday and Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC. ET's Lauren Zima will be recapping everything that goes down, directly after each episode. Watch ET Live on your Roku, Apple TV or Amazon Fire TV or you can stream on Pluto TV and Samsung TV Plus.
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