Credit: Charles Sykes/Bravo
Austen Kroll opened up about friend-zoning Salley Carson after his split from Audrey Pratt following last week’s episode of Southern Charm.
As the rest of the cast, including Venita Aspen, 32, Craig Conover, 36, and Shep Rose, 45, shared their thoughts about the upcoming reunion, with Salley, 31, warning of a possible face-off with Charley Manley, 28, in regard to their love triangle with Craig, Austen, 38, recalled telling Salley he wanted to be “just” friends as she hinted at more.
“I think that Salley and I have a really good understanding of one another,” Austen began on the most recent episode of the Southern Charm: After Show. “I was excited because I was like, ‘Okay, this is, like, this new person that I’ve been telling myself that I am, right? This new person of, like, being, you know, upright and forthright, and not, you know, leading them on or not,’ and I’m like, ‘This is my first kind of opportunity to have an honest conversation with Salley or someone of the opposite sex who is showing an interest for me,’ and being like, ‘Hey, I like you a lot in all these ways, but I’m not there. And so, can we please just be friends?'”
According to Austen, he felt that he and Salley were in “the exact same realm” when it came to the discussion. However, that didn’t mean that Salley’s advances had stopped.
“She still will throw it out there of like, ‘Can I come home with you tonight?’” he shared. “And I’m like, ‘Salley, you can’t do this every time that we hang out.’ And then she’ll be like, ‘Okay, sorry, like, I did that. I’m not gonna do that again.'”
While Austen seemed clear in where he stood, Salley suggested he was “playing with fire,” although she acknowledged that “no one’s emotionally available that soon out of a relationship.”
“You’re playing with fire. You want to sit here and tell me, he, like, very much acted like, ‘You come on to me strong.’ I get it, but at the same time, I’m kind of like, ‘Okay, don’t make me out to be some crazy girl that’s just, like, coming on so strong to you, and it’s not reciprocated.’ Because it very much was reciprocated, after the breakup,” she alleged.
Continuing on, Salley explained that neither she nor Austen was ready for a serious relationship and noted that they wouldn’t pursue one until they were.
“I don’t think that we would ever go into anything unless we were super serious about each other, because we don’t want to mess up the friendship that we have,” she stated. “So, once we decide, or if we ever were to decide, like, ‘Hey, we’re doin’ this thing,’ it would be, like, an all-in situation.”
“I think he really cares about me,” Salley went on. “I’m like, ‘We should just date then.’ But we talk like that all the time. There’s definitely potential in the future … We’re gonna be one big happy family.”
During another After Show segment, the cast looked ahead to the reunion, with Craig suspecting it would be “exactly like f**king Mexico.”
“Everyone’s just gonna yell at me,” he stated before sharing his best-case scenario, which featured Austen in a new romance.
“Here’s my best-case scenario: Austen falls in love with someone, newer relationship, so that he’s happy about himself,” he reasoned.
As for the rest of the cast, Craig said he hoped Shep would get dementia, and he noted that the taping would “be the first time” that he and Charley would be forced to interact. He then said that things with Molly O’Connell, 38, were great as he hinted at possible drama with Salley, and Salley seemingly confirmed it.
“I’m about to get it all out there. I’m not kidding. [I’m going to] wholeheartedly call Charley out,” she warned.
Elsewhere, Venita hoped the cast could come back from the drama they faced throughout the season.
“What I hope for the reunion is that certain people can pull their head out of their own a** and realize that not everyone’s against them at all times and that all things, no matter how deep, can be reconciled,” she shared. “That’s what I hope.”
“There’s a finality to it that’s kind of lovely,” Shep added.
Southern Charm season 11 airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.