Are Austen Kroll & Salley Dating After Season 11? EXCLUSIVE

The Southern Charm Season 11 finale revealed an update on Austen Kroll and Salley Carson’s budding romance — but are they dating today?

At the end of Episode 15, an onscreen graphic offered that Austen and Salley have been “hanging out and making out” ever since last June’s Carolina Day. On the Southern Charm After Show, they both confirmed that not much has changed since then, either.

“We’re in the exact same realm, like where that conversation was,” Austen said, referencing their exchange outside of the Carolina Day party. “She still will throw it out there of like, ‘Can I come home with you tonight?’ And I’m like, ‘Salley, you can’t do this every time that we hang out.’ And then she’ll be like, ‘OK, sorry, like, I did that. I’m not gonna do that again.'”

RELATED: Are Salley Carson and Austen Kroll Dating? She Reveals Surprising New Intel

Salley, for her part, commented that Austen is “playing with fire” by claiming that she comes on to him “strong.”

“I get it, but at the same time, I’m kind of like, OK, 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,” she added. “Because it very much was reciprocated — after the breakup.”

Salley continued, “I think we’re both not ready. 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. 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.”

Why Austen Kroll and Salley Carson are just “friends” today

Austen, meanwhile, said that he and Salley are on the same page about staying in the friend zone — for now, at least.

“I think that Salley and I have a really good understanding of one another,” he added on the After Show. “I was excited because I was like OK, 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 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?'”

Separately, Salley insisted that she would never expect Austen to jump into another serious relationship immediately after breaking up with girlfriend of one-and-a-half years, Audrey Pratt, anyway.

RELATED: Why Austen Kroll Says Being With Salley Would Be the “Ultimate Slap in the Face” to Audrey

“No one’s emotionally available that soon out of a relationship,” Salley elaborated. “And if you are, it’s probably a little bit of a red flag.”

However, she described how Austen will often send her memes, citing an example of a post he forwarded to her over the holidays that included matching Christmas sweaters that he imagined they’d wear together if they dated. “And I’m like, ‘We should just date then,'” Salley joked. “But we talk like that all the time. There’s definitely potential in the future.”

She even predicted that, as long as her dogs get along with Austen’s cats, they’re “gonna be one big happy family” someday.

Where Austen Kroll and Salley Carson stood at the end of Southern Charm Season 11

After making out multiple times during the cast trip to Mexico, Austen and Salley returned to Charleston with lingering questions about their relationship. When Austen exited the Carolina Day celebration to meet up with Shep Rose and Whitney Sudler-Smith for an after party, Salley followed him outside for some clarity. 

“Sorry for actually caring about you and liking you and, like…” Salley began, before Austen started answering from the other side of a fence.

“I appreciate that, I really do,” he told Salley. “And I like you too. I think you’re wonderful, I do. But I’m not in a headspace to, like, do something with somebody.”

She responded by saying that she understood him “not being emotionally available” quite yet, before asking, “But, like, would you be interested in me if you were in the headspace?”

When Austen said, “I don’t know. I cannot answer that,” Salley shot back, “I call bulls–t. You know it’s reciprocated. … Austen, I’ll do whatever I gotta do.”

She concluded in a confessional, “I think that me and Austen both kind of know if we get together, it could potentially be the real thing.”

As you await more updates on the Southern Charm Season 11 reunion, get even more new details on Salley and Austen’s post-filming dynamic.