Hi everyone, I think I've made up my mind but could still do with some reassurance/validation.
I've been friends with a guy for almost a decade. At the beginning of the friendship I think I was 17/18 and he was 23/24. I had strong feelings for him and because of his actions, I thought they were reciprocated (spending a lot of time together, holding hands, getting me small gifts). However, after all the time spent together, he completely changed his mind and I had experienced my first 'heartbreak'. It took a while for me to speak to him again as friends but eventually, we had a good, strong friendship.
Fast forward to this time last year, I was 24 and he was 31. We started to hang out more and I was really enjoying our time together but I remained under the impression that we were just friends hanging out. After a couple of months of us hanging out he asks "how would you feel about us dating?" I said I was quiet neutral and would see how things go. He told me he could see us together and had thought about marriage.
Long story short, the same thing as before has happened again. We went on dates, held hands, he got me little gifts etc and he's just changed his mind again. He's contacting me less frequently and so I hardly hear from him.
He messaged me last night and I said "it was nice to hear from you, we should meet soon" and he indirectly told me he doesn't want to, he said "but I'm right here" meaning via text. He's used this method of response before so I just said alright. He then back peddled and said "yes, we'll meet soon"
I'm not going to embarrass myself and beg for a friendship and I am happy to back away from him, it's just disappointing that the friendship was going so well and due to his indecisiveness once again, it's fizzling out.