Clearing the air. Rachel Bilson set the record straight on those Nick Viall dating rumors in an exclusive interview with Us Weekly on Thursday, December 5.

“We’re just friends,” the O.C. alum, 38, told Us. “We’ve always just been friends. He’s a really nice guy.”

The pair first sparked speculation that they were dating after she appeared on the 39-year-old former Bachelor’s podcast, “Viall Files,” in July. In the following months, Bilson and Viall traded flirty comments on social media. “Cute dress,” Viall wrote on a photo of Bilson with her former Hart of Dixie costars Scott Porter and Wilson Bethel in August. The To Do List actress complimented Viall on his “sweet cuffs” under one of his social media posts later the same month.

However, Bilson told Us that the comments were them “just messing around.”

As for if the actress wants to see Viall make a return as the Bachelor, she thinks he’s still a good candidate. “He should,” Bilson said. “He’s very entertaining. I tease him about it, but I don’t think he would ever do it.”

Viall, for his part, labeled Bilson as “just a friend” and added that he’s still looking for love in an interview with Us in November. “I’m certainly hoping to settle down when the right person comes,” he said at the time. “I’m not trying to put pressure on myself.”

In September, Bilson played coy about their rumored relationship. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she playfully told Us at the time. Her best friend, actress Jamie King, added, “That’s private; we’ll keep that private, for now.”

The former Bachelor in Paradise star revealed on Brad Goreski‘s podcast, “Brad Behavior” that he and Bilson dined together in October but said the outing wasn’t a date. “We hung out, and her friends were there too … a bunch of people,” Viall said.

Viall previously got engaged to Vanessa Grimaldi on the March 2017 episode of his season of The Bachelor. The former couple called it quits in August 2017. Bilson, meanwhile, dated Hayden Christensen on and off from 2008 to 2017. They are the parents of daughter Briar Rose, 5.

Bilson has teamed up with Marshalls to help shoppers make the most of the shorter (by nearly a week) holiday shopping season.