Sumana

Sure, I can see "I did not want the romantic relationship that she did, I felt us to be incompatible on that axis" as a true and face-saving explanation. "Not a murderer!" is important to establish. It was "It was a tortured, awkward, excruciatingly embarrassed attempt to make clear to her why I felt that an age distance between us of twenty-five years constituted an insuperable barrier, for me, to a romantic relationship." that I felt to be unnecessary. You can say what without getting into the details of why. But in hindsight, while I still think that was harsh, I don't think it's as bad as I did in February. (Relatedly, in February, I had just asked out a man my own age and been turned down, with the explanation that he was now exclusively into women 20 years younger than he and I are. So that was fresh at the time, which may have explained why I reacted so strongly.)