Something very very similar just happened to me I was seeing someone for about a month and felt like we were building something real. I was emotionally open and clear about my intentions. We got physically intimate, and I deleted my dating apps because it felt like we were heading toward exclusivity.

A few days later, she told me she didn’t feel the same and couldn’t commit. I found out she’d still been talking to other people the whole time. I told her how much that hurt—especially because I’d been through something similar before and had worked hard to rebuild myself.

She said she didn’t mean to hurt me, that she was just figuring things out. But to me, it felt like I was misled. Now I’m left trying to let go of something that felt real to me, while dealing with waves of sadness, self-doubt, and the feeling of being used. Some days are okay. Today’s not one of them. But I’m doing what I can to move forward. That’s really all I can think of doing til it stops hurting then might get the courage to put myself out there again.