Backstory: A few months back I met who we’ll call Brad. Brad was pretty clear from the get go that he was interested in dating me. I was interested in him too, but since I just got out of a very bad 3 year relationship I told him I wanted to be friends first and take things slow which he was okay with. We got really close and hung out and spoke regularly. I grew to really like him a lot but I still wasn’t sure if I was ready to actually take the next step.
About a month ago Brad invited me to a small get together (very small because of COVID), we both got a little buzzed and when he walked me home he started holding my hand. I kind of just got caught up in the moment and ended up kissing him.
The next morning the tone of Brad’s texts changed and all of a sudden he was texting me “hey beautiful”. To tell the truth it freaked me out a little because everything was happening so fast. I took my time to respond, but I told him that while I thought he was an amazing person I just needed to be single for a while and I just couldn’t do a relationship right now, but I wanted to remain friends. He took it surprisingly well and things went mostly back to normal.
However, around this time I’d also reconnected with an old crush we’ll call Joe (24M) and had been hanging out with him too. Shortly after the kiss with Brad, Joe admitted he liked me and asked if I felt the same, to which I replied yes. Long story short Joe and I ended up becoming official about a week ago. I posted a picture on Instagram with my new boyfriend.
I honestly thought Brad would be happy for me, but now all of a sudden he’s stopped initiating conversations with me entirely, and when I do try to reach out to him I only get one word answers. I still think Brad is a wonderful person and it hurts that now all of a sudden he doesn’t seem to want to be friends anymore. What can I do about this? Any help is appreciated thanks!
tldr; Was seeing a guy for a few months, told him I only wanted to be friends because I wasn’t ready for a relationship at the time. He doesn’t want to be friends now that I’m dating another guy