There's a lot to think about after a bad breakup. If you didn't have any real warning then your mind is going to be teeming with all kinds of thoughts and feelings. Why did he dump you? What did you do? What's wrong with him? Is it really all over?

So how confusing is it when he tells you he wants you to stay friends? He's just cut you out of his life and now he's saying he wants you in it. Does he really still love you, does he just like you or is he just feeling guilty and trying to let you down gently? Or maybe he's just crazy and doesn't know what he wants at all.

In all probability, he really doesn't know. He felt there was a problem in his life and he convinced himself that it was his relationship with you. So he ended it. But that didn't seem to fix anything. All he can see now is that he had something, which he threw away. He realizes he still wants you around. He can't believe that he wants things to be the way they were so he thinks the only way to keep you in his life is on the terms of friendship.

To you that seems like a pretty poor second to what you had before. But he doesn't realize it looks that way. From his point of view, it demonstrates to him and to you that he still has feelings for you. That means you need to capitalize on them.

If you want to get back together, you need to work out what it was that made a good relationship seem bad. All couples go through hard times but the secret lies in understanding your strengths together and eliminating your weaknesses. But asking you to be his friend could well be the first sign that you're destined to be together again.