The honeymoon phase was over for Nikki Bella and Artem Chigvintsev on the May 7 episode of Total Bellas. During the episode, Nikki and Artem planned a date night to reconnect, but she accidentally double booked herself with a work event on their planned night out. Artem wound up meeting Nikki and her sister, Brie Bella, at their hosting gig for the premiere of Temptation Island, and he and Nikki planned to go salsa dancing together afterward. However, when he saw her seemingly flirting with another guy at the premiere party, he stormed off before it was even time for the date.
Artem’s decision to leave pissed off Nikki, who was several drinks in at this point. She and Brie wound up going salsa dancing together, and she made it her mission to enjoy the night by dancing with other guys instead of thinking about what happened with Artem. Eventually, Artem arrived to talk things out, and at the exact moment he showed up, Nikki was talking to a male friend. “I show up to clear the air, and I’m worried she’s just going to ignore me and continue this conversation with this guy,” Artem admitted. “Where does this even come from?”
At this point, Artem left again, but Brie chased him out and begged him to come back inside. “If she wanted to, she would be running out here the same way you are, but she’s not,” Artem insisted. Artem did end up following Brie back inside, but when Nikki kept ignoring him, he admitted that he was “disappointed” and left again. This time, Brie urged Nikki to follow him, and they exploded on each other outside the club.
“What did I do wrong tonight?” Nikki demanded. “Because I’m not going to put up with this s*** at all. Let’s hear it.” Artem tried to explain that the salsa date night was important for him and that he felt like she wasn’t taking it seriously, but Nikki fired back, “Really? Because I had to deal with a man who ran tonight, which is pretty embarrassing. F*** you.”
At that point, Artem decided to remove himself from the conversation, and he explained to Brie, “I never want to hurt a person I love, no matter how I felt. That’s not me. She’s purposely standing there trying to hurt me. This is not the way a relationship works.” After Artem left, Nikki told Brie she was “done” with him, and admitted that she might not be “meant” to be in a relationship with him. Nikki went to Artem’s house and the fight continued, but nothing was resolved, and she slept in the guest room.
“We’re not going to solve anything now unless you’re really going to put your mind to it and say…how did I offend you, and vice versa,” Artem said in a confessional. “But when it’s a one-sided conversation, I don’t want to have it. I think it’s weird to see your girl on a special date, paying more attention to other people. It really made me start to think….are we right for each other? Is this what the relationship is? Because if it is, then I don’t think it’s right for both of us.”
Of course, the next morning, Nikki started feeling bad about how things went down — especially since she texted Artem “really mean things” that she regretted. However, she still wasn’t happy about how he acted. “I do not handle jealously well,” she explained to Brie. “I’ve been in those relationships and they never work. I will not be in a relationship where I have to question…what did I do wrong? I will not be in a relationship the rest of my life like that.”
Finally, Nikki and Artem talked things out, and heard what the other had to say. Nikki explained that she felt Artem reacted very harshly when she wasn’t even flirting with another guy, and he explained that he felt like he wasn’t included on a night that was supposed to be special between them. They apologized to each other, agreed to think before they speak in the future, and moved on.
However, the drama isn’t over, because after the fight, Nikki revealed to her mom, Kathy Colace, that her period was late and she feared she might be pregnant. She admitted that it wouldn’t be the ideal time for her to have a baby, due to the fragility of her relationship with Artem and her busy schedule. Kathy urged her to take a pregnancy test, but we won’t see what happens with that until next week’s episode!
