I think the one to be embarrassed should be him, not you. They only do this because they are too inadequate to do the adult thing and say that they don't see a future, OR that they get cold feet but want to keep their options open.
In my case I am a what you see is what you get person and I never play games with people.
I was chatting to him on some work I am doing about the past, local history and so on. We seemed to get on really well on the Messenger chat, there was a lot of zing there and connection, but then he started telling me he had feelings for me. It took me a while to catch up but then I realised I did as well and told him so. (Perhaps it was my old feelings coming back from the past?)
He also got raunchy on Messenger one time, and that made me uncomfortable. He did apologise and stop that, but he did say that I turned him on, wanted me with him and so on. He has been working away and living there since last February and sent me all the information about the place he was staying in, the apartment, videos of it, the website and he sent me loads of photos, playlists, pics of what he was working on, and it was all genuine. Vice versa, I sent photos too - not saucy ones, ordinary ones, what I was doing, daily life, etc.
He also told me a lot about his friend who had died, (this is genuine, I knew the man) - personal stuff, and I did the same to some degree. I confided in him that an ex had beaten me up and raped me. I felt very safe with him and he messaged me five or six times each day, lots of "Morning beautiful" to wake up to, and it was really zingy. Lots of kisses, emojis, playlists and so on. We have also seen each other's facebook pages with up to date photos. There really was a lot of interaction and it felt good and real. We talked about people we both knew, he sent me all the information about his company (he owns it) so he wasn't lying about that.
He said he couldn't get me out of his mind, wanted to hold me, wanted me to be there, etc etc. Couldn't stop thinking about me, that sort of thing. He did resist talking on the phone though and I was uncomfortable with that as I longed for a proper chat. It was too much like You've Got Mail with Tom Hanks and I wanted some reality.
I need to add that I was not searching for a boyfriend, and lockdown had nothing to do with it on my side. I am busy, happy, good job teaching and writing, lots of friends of both genders, happy cats, lots to do, exercise classes, loads going on and I didn't feel I needed a gap filling or that I was lonely. I went to his apartment. I felt safe and secure doing this, because he had given me the address, the photos, and videos of the place and I was not a stalker. This was a month ago today, 7 December. Over the course of the previous months I felt we had built up a real level of trust.
Also on his birthday in early November I sent him a birthday card to the apartment. This was one I had crafted myself on the playlist theme, playlist from the day he was born, saying it was a classic and wishing him a happy birthday, with love. I wanted to do that because it was personal and differentiated me from the usual Messenger or FB posts. He thanked me for the card - with lots of kisses.
Then he ghosts! It is very odd. This is a real person who I have met in the past, though funnily enough at the beginning he didn't realise that.