Hugs and (a little) Heartbreak - Take Three

Today did not work out quite as planned, but I'm slowly becoming okay with that.
Little Red and met me after work.  The plan was intended to be another date, but her family sprung a last minute dinner engagement on her, so we had only a few hours to be together.  As per usual, we jumped into bed fairly quickly, but it became a little difficult to get a proper start knowing we were on a timeline.  So, after a little while, we just laid together and talked.  We talked about our various insecurities, and our mutual puzzlement about what this could become, if anything.  Finally, after we were both getting fairly emotional, she said something I didn't expect:  she said that I wasn't really in love with her.  I was stunned for a few moments, even hurt a little, but there was no denying that she was totally right.  My declarations of love, though sincere at the time, weren't true expressions of love.  As it turns out, Little Red was just a girl who was very nice to me at a time when no girl had been nice to me for a long time.  I took those good feelings and ended up amplifying them, almost to the point of having a dependence on them.  To take a more metaphorical approach, I was seeing a rocket taking off when it was actually nothing more than a firecracker.   I was getting too emotionally invested when she was unsure about things, not to mention having her own self-image troubles.  In terms of self-image, I'm no role model either.  I still worry that every girl I come across is my last shot at being happy, not to mention having a slight dislike of my own body (I've always been super-skinny, and I don't always like that), so we've both got things to work on before we can be in a proper relationship.  I guess it just goes to show that Natalie of Baggage Reclaim knows what she's talking about:  emotionally unavailable people getting together is a thoroughly terrible idea.
All of this isn't to say that we aren't attracted to each other, of course.  We both still like each other, but we've decided that it's a much better idea to be friends, as we originally intended.  We both kind of messed that one up, so hopefully we can stick to it this time.  I'm a little sad about how things turned out, but the fact is, the way things were going, it would have probably come to a bad end anyway.  In all likelihood, I would have gotten impatient, and asked her to make a decision she wasn't ready to make, which would have lead to more hurt, which is something I'd never want for anyone.  I'm sure we'll still be talking, and maybe even spend time together once in a while (possibly helping each other to get a date), so while I'm a bit down about things for now, I'll be a lot happier in the long run.