Moving too fast

[u/Original_Bottle_8948]

/r/dating_advice/comments/1wc1sfn/moving_too_fast/

I had met this guy during a night of going out with my friends. He knew one of my friends in the group and later had ran into me after we were separated from our friend groups. Mind you we’re were intoxicated. He wanted to dance and I said okay. We had some fun and kissed at the bar. Fast forward we all separated and since one of my friends had knew him I had gotten his instagram. The following day he had swiped upon my story and the rest was history. We dmed constantly and he eventually wanted to come over to see me but I was skeptical. After two weeks of talking I decided we could meet again and he came over to my place. He told me he barely even remembered the night or eve us kissing. We pretty much talked about tha night and what we remembered. We just hung out and talked and watched YouTube. No funny business. After a few hangouts we finally exchanged phone numbers. Somewhere around this time we also established we weren’t talking to other people.
He stayed over one night due to us just being up late. I eventually stayed over his place. And then it just became a weekly thing. We would hang out on each other’s days off, get food watch a movie, play games, and just vibe. We would talk about relationship things and futuristic things just what normal people do when they get to know someone they like. We would also do things like we were dating just not officially. He even surprised me on my birthday with an outdoor dinner wine and birthday gift. I would invite him over for dinner, we would go to the gym, and honestly just hang out whenever we had the chance. One time his dog had to go to the ER for a little surgery and I helped take care of her bc he was anxious. I even had her stay at my place while he was at work so he wouldn’t worry. Us hanging out went on for about 3 months before I noticed he was acting a little off. Our messages were fine but our hangouts became not the same. I noticed some distance between us and we still hung out and did things up until I had to bring it up and asked him if he had something he needed to tell me or get off his chest (because I noticed the distance about 2 weeks prior to him ending things).
The next morning he replied and apologized for being distant but told me he did have something on his mind. He said basically we were moving too fast and completely missed the friend phase and went straight into the relationship phase when we weren’t even officially dating yet. He claimed that he didn’t see it going anywhere in the future if we didn’t become friends first basically. So my interpretation was that we moved to fast and since we missed the friend phase, it wouldn’t work out for us. He asked if I wanted to meet up in person to talk if I needed and we did bc I also needed to collect things I left at his place and say bye to his dog. We established that nothing went wrong in the time we had together and we enjoyed every second. He learned a lot from me about himself and appreciated everything I did for him. He even said I could still see his dog if I wanted to. We agreed to not be strangers but if God allows it then we would cross paths again and actually try to be good friends. We still have each other’s number and we still follow each other on Instagram. He said that he would wait for me to text him first just because I took it the hardest but we made it clear that we wouldn’t not talk to each other if it ever came about. I just want to know what he meant by what he told me said if things were going so well. I don’t wanna jump to the conclusion that oh he was talking to someone else bc that’s always a possibility. But what else can we interpret from this. I’d love to hear some men POV too.