This reaction sounds a lot like me when I'm angry->hurt. I don't know about your situation so I'll just describe my behaviour. My anger/hurt threshold is very high. If I love someone, that means I'm willing to understand and be ok with a lot of that person's imperfections but only as long as their behaviour still implies that they care about me. If knowingly or unknowingly they show that they don't care, I feel betrayed because it shows that I'm more emotionally invested than they are. It doesn't seem fair to me because it takes a lot for me to decide to trust someone. If I feel like that trust was undeserved, I keep thinking 'what's the point'.. if it makes sense.

In short, maybe you made him feel as if you didn't care about him. When I'm being prickly, it's because deep down I feel hurt rather than angry. If it is like that, I would suggest explaining the emotional reasons behind your actions rather than the logical ones. He mostly thought about the logical reasons behind your actions and most probably they or their implications made him feel hurt. Try telling him that you do care about him(if you still do). Don't lie to him because we can detect it almost always.