On Monday night's episode, the Arkansan on ABC's The Bachelor advanced to become one of 10 remaining contestants — and was the first to confess that she was falling in love with this season's serial dater, Arie Luyendyk Jr.
The group traveled to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where Tia Booth, a 26-year-old physical therapist from Weiner, was singled out for a one-on-one date.
Luyendyk, 36, took Booth on an airboat through the Everglades, where the Poinsett County native recoiled at alligators and dined on deep-fried frog legs and catfish in a house built on stilts in the swamp.
"I feel like this is a really country date for a country girl," Luyendyk said.
Tia's feeling it! #TheBachelor pic.twitter.com/Yt0ca2aP6B
— The Bachelor (@BachelorABC) January 27, 2018
Booth shrugged off the stereotype, admitting that she has gone "frogging" but explaining that she went to graduate school and lives in "the city" now.
"I don't see myself ending up in Arkansas," she said. "In school I had this life planned out, but that doesn't necessarily happen."
She then asked Luyendyk about his religion, to which he said he doesn't feel led by a higher power.
Booth, on the other hand, said she was raised in a church and values her faith but doesn't "judge or not accept people for having a different belief."
The 26-year-old said she typically dates people different from her who she tries to fix — without calling out any Arkansan ex-boyfriends by name — but felt things were different with Luyendyk.
"It does kind of feel like a fairy tale, like I'm falling for you but it's scary as [expletive] to say that I'm falling in love with you," she told him before he gave her a rose.
Luyendyk was a runner-up on The Bachelorette in 2012. The show airs Mondays at 7 p.m. on ABC.