Dean Unglert and Lesley Murphy are focusing on their next steps.
The couple's instant connection was obvious from the beginning of The Bachelor Winter Games, and on Thursday night's finale, they made it official -- with a key to Unglert's apartment.
The 26-year-old reality star teased fans and his fellow castmates as he got down on one knee with a ring box, only to present Murphy with a key instead of an engagement ring. It wasn't exactly the biggest move, but it was still stressful for Unglert.
"It was the most nerve-racking moment of my entire life. I can tell you that much," he confessed to ET's Lauren Zima after the taping last week, revealing that the key "doesn't really open anything" other than the keypad lock at his house.
"Yay, modern technology!" Murphy shouted, sharing that the gesture might have convinced her to spend more time in Los Angeles. "I think it might. I have been toying with a few different places across the country, but I think the West Coast is the best coast, and that's all I'm gonna say."
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Unglert and Murphy won fans over with their playful relationship on Winter Games after his dramatic run on Bachelor in Paradise last summer, but they've also had the serious talks. According to Murphy, the two spoke openly at the beginning of Winter Games about her decision to get a double mastectomy after discovering she had the BRCA2 gene. Unglert's mom had breast cancer.
"That was something we initially kind of bonded over, and all I have to say is that I think that I couldn't have asked for a better response from somebody who I was dating, because I think it can be a really really nerve-racking thing to come into a relationship after such a big surgery," Murphy, 30, said. "I've never had surgery before in my life, so coming from a big thing such as a double mastectomy and being intimate for the first time is so, so scary."
"I can tell this story all day to women, to whoever, but to actually tell it to somebody who I'm dating is another thing entirely. So, I couldn't have asked for a better response from a guy like Dean," she added.
Unglert's mother underwent a double mastectomy when he was 10 years old, and while he "didn't necessarily know how to process it at that age," he had some experience with the procedure's effect on those who undergo it.
"Seeing the way [my mom] was able to be optimistic and positive through that experience -- I think she got a breast augmentation as well later on -- and then reliving it with Lesley and seeing a lot of the similar characteristics of the positivity and the optimism and just the courage and all that [was amazing]," Unglert explained.
"At the end of the day, Lesley is still an incredibly gorgeous and beautiful person. The fact that something would hold anyone back like that is just mindblowing to me," he continued. "I think that we did bond early on because of that, but I think that we have grown so much closer for so many other things beyond that as well."
In fact, it's clear that Unglert is smitten by his lady love.
"I found a good egg," he said with a smile. "Let's see how long it takes for her to realize that she's out of my league."
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