I live in a very small village where I work in the local shop. There is one other shop that is literally right around the corner.
Back in April, I became romantically involved with a man the same age as me who had just moved into the village after buying his first house.
We actually met through the shop which is where we first met.
Things were so fantastic at first, the kissing was amazing and he even said he felt like he had met someone special and I was such an amazing girl, but he kept saying he did not want to commit just yet and wanted to stay friends just for now, as he had only come out of a relationship six weeks before he met me, he was with her for 18 months, and his head still not right and the timing was wrong.
We continued to be close friends, having a lot of contact with eachother as in every few days, and then regrettably sleeping together for the first time after a drunken night out in the village in the September.
(I see him in the local pubs all the while along with my friends, this is how it usually happened with me going back to his house)
But he continued to keep saying, even in the October after sex, that he still was in such a bad place and not over his ex and us sleeping together was a mistake 😢, so he could not commit to me or anyone else at all as he was struggling to move on from his ex, but please still be his friend, and he promised me he was not seeing or speaking to anyone else and that I could trust him as he was not ready for a relationship with anyone.
And then right before Christmas, he messaged a month later after saying that saying he had met someone else in the November and was now seeing her, and could not contact me anymore as he was a loyal person and did not want to jeopardise anything with her.
I am devastated, he could not commit to me after nine months but could with her after five weeks. I feel so worthless.
I know I'm an idiot, but I foolishly fell for him, and over Christmas and New year, I messaged him telling him him how heartbroken I feel, and that I dread the day I ever bump into him again in the village as I don't think my heart could take it, but he never answered as he told me he wouldn't.
He has even spent all new year week away with her after only knowing her for 8 weeks, even though I have no idea who she is, other than she is not from the village.
But this week, my friend who I work with, he knows she is my best friend, tells me he keeps going in the shop now that he is back but luckily I have not been there, even though he never used to come in the shop at all while we were seeing eachother.
She says he is always alone when he comes in, as I really can't face seeing him with someone else.
It has deeply unnerved me.
Do you think he is doing it to provoke me as there is a shop right around the corner that he can go too, even though he wouldn't return my messages which I have now stopped to keep my dignity?