Was online dating, intended to just have dates, nothing serious, first time online dating after a bad divorce 2 years ago.
Met a nice guy, from the start he was very keen, I told him I wasn’t wanting serious but was happy to meet for a date, also told him I would still be open to meeting other people for dates, also told him (in my attempts at being very upfront and honest) that I had been having a friends with benefits arrangement with another guy. He said he understood all this and was happy to date and see how it goes. He was very much “I’m into you and you’ll realise we will have a good thing” from after our first date. He wasn’t dating anyone else so I did feel under pressure a bit but I stuck to my guns and continued being open about being on the apps. In the end I only ended up going on a date with one other man. Long story short I seen the guy I had a casual relationship with once more and called it off then as was keen to explore things with the new guy and wasn’t wanting to sleep with multiple people. Told new guy I had called it off with him but didn’t specifically say when I had seen casual guy again. i had only met new guy for 1 date at this stage and been speaking to him for 1 week prior.
we’ve now been dating for around 8 months, had the exclusive talk after 2 months and got quite serious after 3/4. and he asked me out of the blue when I last seen casual guy. I told him when it was. He basically said I had cheated on him and once we decided to get serious (3 months in) I should have explicitly told him that I had slept with casual guy after having a first date with him and the date of this. He said I’ve ruined his trust and basically is ending the relationship over this. I feel awful that I’ve hurt him but I also don’t feel I had to tell him exactly what I was doing or who with, and even with that being said I was very open with him. He said he was all in from the start and I wasn’t, which is true, I wasn’t looking anything serious but actually really fell for him.
have I been awful?