Katie Maloney is insisting that her and Ariana Madix‘s sandwich shop, Something About Her, is on the cusp of opening — despite online rumors to the contrary.

Amid a joint interview with Vanderpump Rules co-star Scheana Shay, 38, who spoke of the season 11 reunion and her potential role on a future season of The Valley, Katie, 37, suggested an opening will happen “soon” while also admitting that Scheana did text her on the night of her hookup with Max Boyens, which she previously denied.

“It’s not a scam!” Katie insisted of her restaurant to E! News on April 19. “There is a location, 100% there is a location. It exists. There’s a door you can walk through.”

“We are so dangerously close, and I mean that in a really positive way. I know it’s been a really long time coming. That’s felt by everyone that asks me that question. But, I mean, if we could’ve opened six months ago, we absolutely would’ve, but it’s completely out of our hands,” she explained.

As fans have surely heard, Katie and Ariana, 38, have faced a number of permitting issues along the way. But now, Katie claims opening day is “right around the corner.”

“I don’t want to share a date but very, very soon,” she explained.

“We had to rip out an entire patio,” Katie continued. “So we’ve had to get a whole new awning made, we’ve had to get new permits for that … I saw some plans for it yesterday. This is not for the faint of heart. The education that I’ve got opening up a food establishment is really illuminating.”

Despite her challenges, Katie said the inside of her sandwich shop is “really beautiful.”

“I’m really excited about it … It’s super cute,” she gushed.

Moving on to the Pump Rules reunion, Katie said reunions are the “worst day of the year.”

“This year, there’s a lot less yelling, which is always nice, especially compared to last year,” she shared. “I feel like everyone just kind of spoke their piece at an inside voice kind of level. [But] it was still very emotionally charged.”

According to Scheana, something “crazy” happened during the taping that’s “never happened before.”

“There was a plot twist at the reunion,” she revealed.

Looking ahead to season 12, which has not yet been confirmed, Katie said she hopes for “lower stakes” drama and “something a little more lighthearted.”

“It has felt really heavy, especially after last season and the ‘Scandoval’ of it all, I just feel like, very solemn and just heavy a lot. I just, I don’t want tumultuous arguments, fighting, sometimes you just can’t be bothered. That’s how it feels,” she stated.

“It has been very dark and that’s tough to navigate when I try to be a positive, happy, light person,” Scheana agreed.

That said, Scheana said she “definitely” wouldn’t leave Pump Rules — even to join The Valley.

“I think doing both would be fun,” she noted. “I think more crossovers in the future would be a lot of fun because I’m legitimately friends with every single person on that show.”

“I don’t think I would,” Katie replied. “It’s just as dramatic as our show … Also I don’t like Jax Taylor. I think he’s terrible so I don’t want to be a part of anything he’s part of.”

While discussing Katie and Max’s hookup, and Scheana’s location-tracking on the evening of the encounter, Scheana said she didn’t appreciate Katie suggesting that she only checked to make sure that Max was okay.

“Don’t say that I didn’t text you when I did,” she told Katie, who claimed she forgot about her castmate’s message.

“Yeah, but you could’ve said, ‘I don’t remember if she texted me.’ You said, ‘She didn’t,’” Scheana pointed out.

“It was 2-something in the morning. I was obviously twisted. I don’t remember that text. But yeah, she did. She had the receipts,” Katie admitted, signaling to the text Scheana shared publicly.

Because Scheana was tracking Max on the night of his and Katie’s hookup, she figured out what happened before Katie told anyone. And much to her dismay, her husband, Brock Davies, 33, ultimately broke the news.

“Max told me but I was like, ‘This is not our place. Let Max or Katie tell Schwartz if they want to.’ And so the fact that he did that really upset me because that was just not his place to say anything,” Scheana explained.

“I wasn’t planning on taking it to the grave. I just was only going to tell the people that needed to know. I wasn’t going to share that with the group and the rest of America,” Katie clarified.

One year after “Scandoval” rocked the cast, Katie admitted she’s unsure the group will ever be as close as they once were.

“There’s been such fractures in the group that I don’t know if there’s a way back to being that happy family that there was once. [And] I think trying to force that would lead to more darkness,” she stated. “So I don’t know what the future is.”

“I always say we’re a resilient group and we come back from a lot but there was just something about this that hit so differently,” agreed Scheana. “So I don’t know where we go. I always try to stay positive but this is a very different situation.”