What Did Lala Kent Do After She Left SUR?

Lala Kent walked back into SUR this week after stepping away from her job as a hostess at Lisa Vanderpump's West Hollywood eatery earlier this season on Vanderpump Rules. Lala not only stopped taking shifts at SUR, but her unexplained absence also meant that she had stopped communicating with friends like Ariana Madix. It was a decision that Lala needed to make in order to reconnect with herself in the wake of the drama she was knee-deep in in connection with rumors about her love life and arguments with the ladies.

"When I stepped away I turned off my phone. I wasn't looking at emails. I was volunteering my time a the Humane Society of Utah literally every single day," the Utah native and former SURver told The Daily Dish about her absence. "And that's kind of really all I did. It was a finding of myself when I was away and it was much needed. By the time I came back and you see me this episode, I just felt kind of like a different person. I felt like I purged all the negative energy."

Lala headed home and detoxed from her fast-paced L.A. lifestyle, spending quality time with her family. "It was amazing 'cause I finally felt safe and I was with people that I could trust and that I could say things that I wasn't worried it was going to come out on camera later," she said. "I feel like there's certain things that people don't need to know and that's with anybody's life. So it was nice to have my privacy for just a minute."

Returning to L.A. meant having to explain to Lisa why she went M.I.A. from her hostessing gig. And, yes, Lala was feeling some some jitters about the face off with her former boss. "Talking to Lisa I was nervous just because I look up to her, but what I was going in to say to her that wasn't nerve racking just because, like I said when I came back from Utah I was in a completely different head space,' she said. "I felt kind of like a new human being."

Ms. Kent Is Back!

Actually Lala is working again with Lisa, currently volunteering her time at Lisa's recently opened dog rescue center, Vanderpump Dogs. "Absolutely, we talk often and she just opened Vanderpump Dogs and I go and volunteer at her facility," she said. "So our connection is deep because of our love of dogs."

But let's say Lala did get the call to work a shift at SUR, would she say yes? "I would. I'd help a sistah out," she said. "Not full time — a shift here or there. I would do that."

Check out Lala's modeling portfolio, below.