How come he does this but hasn’t spoken to me? what’s the deal?

[Anonymous]

so background story me and this guy were talking for about a week and we got close and things ended because i messed up and he told me he couldn’t do it anymore and told me i need to work on myself before jumping into a relationship because i have trauma and am not healed yet. which, i agree with him. he isn’t wrong. but, he didn’t unfriended me on facebook, he didn’t unfollow me on instagram either. his friend (who oddly enough) is also my friend, told me he was talking about me to him and he said you could tell it was bothering him and it was on his mind but he really didn’t tell his friend much more than the things i did wrong and how he goes for older women and how i had too much going on for him to be with me.

i sent him a super into detail apology text explaining myself and what i felt like went wrong during our time spent and apologized my for my wrongs, (he didn’t respond) but he did end up reading it. i didn’t expect a response, whatever, no big deal. but he still watches all my instagram stories and has even hearted a few after i sent the apology texts. even before i sent the texts, he would still continue to watch all my instagram stories but didn’t heart any of them. we haven’t spoken still and been a few days since the text was sent, i haven’t reached out and either has he, he just hearts my stories occasionally and watches all of them.

what’s the deal?

Updates

4 mo

he doesn’t heart pictures of me, that i post/share, even though he still looks at them. yes, it’s more so pictures of my animals, or post about me working on myself, self loving, etc

[artemisiaa]

People watch each others stories even if they don't know each other, people like them even if they are not friends. I think you are reading into this too much. He is not trying to necessarily crawl back into a relationship with you, I think he finally feels some sort of closure after your apology and he sees your stories whilst he scrolls through everyone elses. I think you need to completely let go of him, if reminders of his existence and him liking the stories causes you anxiety and stress as you overthink what it means (which it probably means nothing) then you should hide your stories from him. I think he feels okay liking them and not unfollowing you because it seems like you didn't break up with a complete mess, it seems to me from what you said that both parties agreed that something needed to change. And that change is probably for the better, even now after your apology.