Adding new fuel to the rumors that The Bachelor: Paris couple Travis Stork and Sarah Stone have already ended their romantic relationship, the couple's hometown Nashville newspaper is reporting that although he is publicly insisting that they are "just friends," Sarah may have recently started dating Matt Lauderdale, the roommate and business partner of NFL Tennessee Titans football team player Drew Bennett.

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"We're strictly just friends. I've been friends with Sarah for a long time," the 27-year-old sports management company founder told The Tennessean in response to a question about the status of his relationship with Sarah. "I hang out with Drew a lot, too, and I hope people don't say we're dating, too."

However according to The Tennessean, those who know them and have seen them around town lately say the pair has looked "very much like a couple" during several recent public appearances.

The two have reportedly been spotted around town together on at least three separate occasions in the last eight days, including a post-finale Tuesday night appearance at a Green Hills neighborhood pub in which other patrons saw the pair "touching, hugging, flirting and looking very much like a couple."

In addition to their Tuesday night appearance, the pair also spent the evening together on Friday, dining together at Sperry's, a restaurant in the city's Belle Meade area, after which they attended a private post-Kid Rock concert party together. And although they arrived separately for the event, two were also seen spending "quite a bit of time talking together" at a Nashville Lifestyles magazine "Singles in the City" party held the previous Tuesday evening.

The Bachelor: Paris couple Travis Stork and Sarah Stone in already happier times??? See more The Bachelor: Paris finale pictures in our The Bachelor: Paris finale photo gallery (photo credit ABC/Craig Sjodin.)

The pair is also said to participate in the same 7AM spin class at the Green Hills YMCA, the same gym in which Sarah and Travis were previously spotted working out together. According to Matt, he first met Sarah through his roommate's girlfriend Heather. Matt, who grew up outside San Francisco, first met Drew when they were in high school together. According to the newspaper, Matt's last known romantic relationship ended about five weeks ago, when he and Nashville Lifestyles ad saleswoman Liz Daniel ended their off-and-on four month relationship. Liz declined the The Tennessean's request to discuss Matt or her relationship with him.

Meanwhile, both Travis and Sarah continued their self-imposed post-finale media blackout on Wednesday, with Sarah not returning The Tennessean's calls about the nature of her relationship with Matt. Neither Travis or Sarah have made any announcement of when they plan to make themselves available for media interviews, and numerous unsubstantiated rumors have begun circulating in the interim, including copies of two unauthenticated Internet emails that claim Travis' Fort Worth-based sister and brother-in-law have told friends that although Travis and Sarah still remain close friends, they are no longer seeing each other romantically.

Although completely unverified, one of the messages -- allegedly a copy of a message that Travis' brother-in-law (in what, if true, would be a pretty foolish move) emailed to his friends on Tuesday, before The Tennessean published today's report -- mentioned that "she might even be dating one of the Tennessee Titan football players now," an apparent reference to Sarah and Matt's rumored relationship. According to the rest of the alleged email, Travis just wants his time in The Bachelor spotlight to end, will not be making any talk show appearances, now wishes he'd kept Susan Edds and Jehen Huleisy as his Final 2 women, and turned down the show's $20,000 offer to film himself and Sarah during a recent hiking outing.

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