Nicole Young describes Season 9 of Selling Sunset as “a lot,” which is a bit of an understatement. Not only does she kick off her return to The Oppenheim Group with a fresh bob (“I went back to my roots, if you will. Not that my roots are that color anymore”), but she also ends a dinner party with a single sentence. And no, she doesn’t regret a single thing. 

“I’m proud of how I stood my ground, and I’m proud of how I hope things will come across,” Nicole tells Tudum. “At least I can walk away with my head held high.”

This season’s drama came to a head during Amanza’s Friendsgiving dinner. Walking into the restaurant that night, Nicole says she was “weary” and “isolated” after the rumors that she had circulated about Emma last season had caused rifts within The O Group. Surprisingly, it started as a fun, relaxing evening. “Unfortunately, as soon as Emma and Chrishell walked into that scene, it was like a dark cloud came with them, and the vibe immediately changed.” 

Instead of munching on turkey hors d’oeuvres, Amanza used the get-together as an opportunity to address when Chrishell accused Nicole of being on drugs and acting “cracked out.” 

“Even if it was true?” Chrishell replied. 

That’s when Nicole said the words that ended the night: “Honey, you’re confusing me with your parents.” It might be the first time viewers have seen Chrishell without a quick comeback. Nicole continued, “You seem to be obsessed with drugs.” 

Nicole believes her beef with Chrishell comes down to projection. “Chrishell talked about her parents having struggled with drug addiction [during] her childhood. It was an aha moment for me, because it was like, ‘This seems like maybe her obsession with drugs has nothing to do with me. This might just be some unresolved, deep-seated issues from childhood.’ ” With that one line, she hoped to “put up a mirror” even if she knew it wasn’t going to be received well. 

“When the back-and-forth stuff started, I was just like, ‘I’m going to stand up for myself at this moment. And I’m not going to be told to shut up and to stop speaking.’ ” However, Nicole admits, she never expected the response she received from Amanza and the rest of the women at the table. “I thought it would at least be like, ‘Oh.’ [A] stop-her-in-her-tracks kind of thing.” Well, it certainly stopped everyone in their tracks. 

To borrow a line from Jason Oppenheim: “You should’ve just called her names. That would’ve been better.” 

Does Nicole still work for The Oppenheim Group?

Following the dinner, Jason and Brett asked Nicole to leave the Oppenheim office. “That storyline was frustrating for me, because the truth of the matter is I was never fired from the office or The Oppenheim group,” Nicole says. The realtors are independent contractors — they don’t clock in every day from nine-to-five. “Not coming into the office and continuing to work and do business, that wasn’t a huge deal.” Her initial reaction to watching it back was, “Hey, this is going to affect my professional reputation,” something of the highest importance to Nicole. “On the flip side, it’s also something that’s just so easily verifiable by anyone in the public, if they wanted to look it up.” 

And no, Nicole doesn’t plan on apologizing to Chrishell. “I’m content with where I’m at,” she says. “I said my piece.” As far as her relationships with the rest of the cast, she is still friends with Mary. However, her relationship with Amanza is “permanently in the past” after Amanza claimed she and Nicole had done cocaine together. 

Where is Nicole today? 

Right now, she’s too busy selling her house to focus on any gossip. Spoiler! She’s moving to Nashville to be closer to her husband’s family. “The last time I did a cross-country move, when I moved to [Los Angeles] after college, I just had a carload of stuff and my dog.” This time around, she has a lot more to pack — have you seen this woman’s closet? 

While waiting to close on the house, she’s used the past year to study the Nashville market, and she intends on continuing her real estate career. But will Nicole return for Season 10? “My new priority will be Nashville, but it definitely won’t be goodbye to LA real estate.”