I think that would be understandable if it were blatantly true. What I mean by that is, this ex of mine may just be more in love with me than I am with him to the point of wanting to get married, or so he says. He says he wants to be in a relationship with me right now. I am the one who has requested we take things slowly as he needs to earn me back basically. The thing is, his actions do not reflect his words. So whether he might be very convincingly expressing a desire for exclusivity but does not actually want that, I cannot say for sure. What I think it is is that he wants to be in a relationship with me because he has not been able to find someone else who he connects with on such a deep level, but he actually is not ready to settle down, and does not realize it. His actions show that he still enjoys attention from various people, esp women and as someone else said here, that does not make him good, long-term relationship material. Or maybe it will work for some other woman, just not me.

I care deeply about him. Despite that I know I need to make the decision that's best for me and will bring me the most peace. I wanted to specifically ask about the lies because I notice when I discussed this with my very close friend, who is married, I was basically being advised to work through it. "White lies" in relationships is also something I have heard others talk about and I wanted to see how normal it was, and if people normally let these things go. But I notice now, based on everyone's honesty, which I am extremely grateful for, that what he was doing is beyond just white lies.