Why is my ex mad at me when I told him I can't hang anymore post breakup?

[drunkinlove]

We dated for 2.5 years. We had our fights, and our ups and downs. A lot of our arguments were over the fact that he wanted independence and I was controlling (because I was hurt in the past, or maybe it is just me. We had stupid fights that had no substance. We fought big, but we loved even bigger. Our connection was undeniable.

He broke up with me after one argument in December 2015. He claimed he needed to have some space to do his own thing and make himself happy. He told me he couldn't work on himself in a relationship because he was always focusing on me. With tears running down his eyes, he gave me the shakiest goodbye - I actually thought it was harder on him that it was for me to hear what he was saying.

However, 5 days after he broke up with me he was at my house hanging out with me. We never went more than 3 days w/o talking & consistently hung out about once or twice a week. We simply moved from a real relationship to a more relaxed, open relationship. I wasn't strong enough to let go of our past. Its was clear we both loved each other very much, and still do. He even said it time to time post breakup. He kept saying, he loves me but we were not working and we need to better ourselves if we would work in the future.

It has been 3 months now, and we are still not together - so I ended it. I told him we needed to rip the band-aide off and go our separate ways and experience life without each other. He got mad and even upset. He was the one that broke up with me, so I am not understanding this. I kept him in my life post breakup in hopes we would get back together. He said he still needs time. So that's that.

Any insight on this? Has anyone had a similar situation? Is there a chance to fix this & get back together?

[answers2016]

He was hoping he was going to keep stringing you along and you was smart enough to not keep going along with it and he didn't take it very well. That's what it looks like, to me, anyways. It is good that you took a stand.

[drunkinlove]

Thank you. That's what I think. He was stringing me alone in case someone else didn't show up, or to keep me on the back burner until he is ready to be in a relationship again. I just cant waste my life waiting for a man who broke up with me in the first place.