Arie Tweeted About Ice Cream & Basically Gave Away His ‘Bachelor’ Winner

On Monday night's episode of The Bachelor, hometown dates finally introduced us to the families of Arie Luyendyk Jr.'s remaining four women, including Lauren B. Even though plenty of fans are confused about his connection with her, a new tweet from Arie's about Lauren and vanilla ice cream could be a clue that he picks her in the end. And at this point, any clue that could help their connection make more sense is a good one.

Something that's really stuck out about Lauren this season is that when she and Arie are together, there's not much conversation, but even so, both of them have admitted that they're falling in love with each other. When they first arrived at Lauren's parents' house, it became clear pretty quickly that she was just from a family of quiet people, and the beginning of the visit involved a lot of awkward silence. This led to a lot of commentary on Twitter about how boring Lauren's family seemed to be... and now, Arie has responded to one of those tweets.

Basically, someone compared Lauren's family to a group of different vanilla ice creams, saying the photo was her family portrait — and Arie jumped in to respond, saying that it's his "favorite flavor." Wait, what?

It's not like a vanilla ice cream comparison is that insulting. Lauren's family seemed like really nice people who truly care about their daughter, even if they didn't seem to have that much "flavor" from what we saw on TV. But for some reason — and maybe an important one — Arie felt like he needed to say something in return.

This is especially meaningful because although Arie tweeted (and retweeted) about the other dates, he didn't defend or show favoritism toward anyone else or their family in this way. It's a pretty big deal, especially now that there are only three women left and we're getting dangerously close to that final rose.

But that's not even all. Someone else responded to this string of tweets asking if Arie's response meant that he chooses Lauren in the end, and he replied to that too.

Exactly the noncommittal answer you'd expect, since it's not like Arie can just give away spoilers, but it's definitely interesting that he replied to that first tweet at all. He's not supposed to give anything away, and he could have just ignored that tweet (and any tweets about Lauren or her family — or anyone else's) but he didn't. It seems very telling about where he and Lauren stand right now. Could she be the one he gave the final rose to? It's starting to look more and more likely, especially after tweets like this one.

On the other hand, he might just simply be on good terms with Lauren and her family after the show and not want to damage that. During Monday's episode, Lauren's family took a lot of heat for being "boring" or not very talkative, so Arie might just be trying to defend them out of respect for the time that he spent with them. Really, anything could be happening here, and it's too hard to deduce a definite answer just from these tweets.

If you're feeling impatient, don't worry — there's not much longer to go before all will be revealed. Next week, both The Women Tell All and the Fantasy Suite dates will air, and by next Tuesday, we'll know who Arie's final two are. Don't be surprised if Lauren is one of them, though. Neither of them could stop talking about the intense connection they feel with each other on Monday night, so it seems like she might just be in it for the long haul.