Dear Prudence,
I started seeing someone a couple of months ago. Things moved really quickly, and within three weeks he was calling me his girlfriend and introducing me to his friends, and we had a conversation about being exclusive. Now all of a sudden he feels like we rushed into things (we did! He did!), and he wants to see other people. Although this was something I would have been open to initially, I don’t think it’s likely that I can dial back the feelings that have developed over the past few months to the point where I’d be comfortable with this arrangement. I’m in a demanding graduate school program that means I don’t have a lot of free time, so I think a likely outcome if I agree to his terms is that he would see other people while I would not. I’m pretty sure that’s not what I want. We’ve put off this conversation for a little while so I can address some school-related deadlines. What’s the best way to navigate this impending talk?