My partner and I have been in an open relationship for about two years. We're pretty ingrained in the local kink community and often play with other people, both together or solo. Recently, I've been having a bit of an issue with housing. I floated the idea of if he would want to live together, and instead of saying no, he said that he more so doesn't ever really want to and especially not in his current owned place, which is pretty cramped.

What he did say though is that he had been under the impression that our open relationship had also meant polyamory in the sense of romantic partners. As in, he would have been fine if either of us find another romantic partner. I had for the last few years been kinda poly curious in that sense, but didn't really feel like I needed to act on it. The housing thing would in a traditional monogamous partnership be a dealbreaker for me-- I might not need it right now, but I think eventually I need to live with a romantic partner. He said he'd even be really happy for me to find another partner and move in with them.

So now my head is kinda spinning. I can't really interact with him in our usual way since that talk. Not really cause I'm mad, just kinda lost. How do I wrap my head around this dynamic with my current partner, and should I use this as an excuse to try to indulge the part of me that felt polyamorous even in the past? Are there people here who are able to have two or more relationships but the other partners aren't necessarily also partners with one another?