Carl Radke Isn't Ruling Out a Future Romance with Lauren Wirkus

Carl Radke and Lauren Wirkus were the will-they-or-won't-they couple of the season. The Summer House pair engaged in a heavy flirtmance right from the start of the season. But after weeks of ups and downs filled with makeout seshes with each other, as well as other people, it increasingly became unclear where things stood between Carl and Lauren. 

However, the two finally found some closure in the season finale when they had a heart-to-heart after Carl spent the night with another woman in the house and decided that a romantic relationship probably wasn't for them. But after summer turned to fall, and fall into winter, Carl and Lauren have remained as tight as ever through it all. "Currently, we're great friends. We still talk. I was with her on Saturday night," Carl told The Daily Dish earlier this month. "I think we're both kind of in this position where she works full-time. She's got a really kickass job. I've got a lot going on." 

But it seemed as though Carl hasn't completely ruled out a romantic future with Lauren. "We're not boyfriend-girlfriend, but we're definitely great friends. We have a great time," he said. "I'm hoping maybe to get back involved with her maybe this summer and have some more fun, just kind of see where that goes."

Carl's In the Hot Seat

Of course, getting involved with Lauren also meant having to deal with her twin, Ashley Wirkus, who often expressed concern over her sister's judgment and whether Carl had her best interests at heart. "Ashley's awesome. Their dynamic is super important. They're best friends," Carl said. "She cares about her sister and wants her sister to have a good time but also meet the right guy and all those things. So I struggled a little bit." 

Carl's Summer House-mate Kyle Cooke said that living with a bunch of friends for the summer has a way of speeding up the progression of a relationship, which is why Carl and Lauren seemed to dive into a romance so quickly at the beginning of the season. "You spend so much time together, you're gonna see a lot unfold in a short amount of time. I mean, 11 weeks sounds like a long time, but so much can kind of transpire," Kyle told The Daily Dish. "It had a way of accelerating various aspects of our lives, and I think you saw that firsthand with Carl and Lauren. They just met, it was kind of off to the races, maybe a couple false starts."

Kyle said that he tried to steer Carl away from hooking up with one of his roommates before the summer began, which clearly didn't work. "You are bound to spend a ton of time together as a house, and if you hook up with someone the first third of the summer, you kind of pigeonhole yourself. It's either gonna be amazing and it does accelerate things, or it's gonna make for some extremely awkward moments because maybe you're not on the same page and you're both still trying to go out, be flirty, you don't want it to be a safety net," Kyle said. "So it complicates things." 

Even though Carl and Lauren experienced a lot of drama as housemates and hook-ups, Carl isn't necessarily ruling against that sort of approach to summer love in the future. "I don't want to sit here and say don't do it. Live your life, have fun, have a couple drinks, go to a pool party, go to an event, go to the beach. You can't limit yourself on that," Carl said of hooking up with someone in your house. "I would say go for it, but I know you've gotta be understanding of everyone else in the house. Once you hook up with someone in your house, you're kind of hooking up with everybody at the same time, because it's all out there now." 

Find out how Carl and Kyle navigate the NYC dating scene during the winter, spring, and fall, below.

Carl Radke and Kyle Cooke Dish on Their NYC Dating Lives