And yet in my own personal experience, I've had two boyfriends who would go on about how this woman in their lives was the greatest thing since sliced bread and essentially they were rubbing it in my face because I had ended things with him. For the record, both of these relationships ended rather badly and they both came crawling back to me in a manner of speaking. Yeesh!
Seriously, people do this b.s. aaaaaallll the time. If they were so happy, they wouldn't be going on and on about it or put it on facebook for the world to see. You'd be able to see how truly happy they were by their actions. If you have to say it out loud, you're only trying to convince yourself and the other person you're talking to. This always raises red flags for me. Especially when a man brags about how good in bed he is and says the typical...oh you'll get yours crap.
It's on the opposite end, but it's the same thing when you confront someone about something and they blow up and make a big deal out of something that started out as a minor question and go on and on about their justifications. This quote: "The lady doth protest too much, methinks." comes from Shakespeare's Hamlet, act III, scene II, and it is always so fitting, same as the squeaky wheel gets the oil (you get the picture).
The reader got the vibe that he felt he couldn't do any better than this woman and he was afraid that there wasn't anything better out there. (if this is true, I feel sorry for that woman)
I've run across this as well and men have internal clocks just like women do, and sometimes get with a woman because they think the woman they really want, will not have them or get married because they're fearful it might be too late.
Your situation was lovely to read, although I don't have any recommendations, just general comments. It was like a cool ghost story. Have you tried another crossover reader to see if they pick up on the same things?
