Post-post-script:
This whole thing turned bad. We basically had a conversation wherein he "mission creeped" the original cause of the breakup into something involving perceived manipulation on my part.
I have never, ever done anything to warrant this. He is clearly making mountains out of non-existent molehills, puts me in the defensive role over them and when I try to clarify/explain, has decided that it doesn't matter what I say, as far as he's concerned, my intent was to manipulate.
The original cause of the breakup: I asked to negotiate primary status and admitted to love for him. He said he was protecting me from heartbreak by ending intimacy with me.
What the situation has morphed into: 1. I (according to him) imposed an ultimatum in the first place (in honesty: I did recoil in pain when he said "no" to primary and was ready at first to end the relationship but after taking a couple hours to consider it calmly, I chilled out and was happy to work it out). And 2. the next day, I said something he took entirely the wrong way. I worded it very poorly and without clarification, I can agree that it probably sounded pretty awful. I basically gave him the impression that I was stating that seeing him was the only thing keeping me from becoming unhinged.
Any attempt at clarification has failed. He simply will not see my side and stubbornly insists that's what I was trying to do.
I am starting to believe there's some motive for his believing this but I don't know what it could be. It's just ridiculous: in 4 years, I've never given any reason for him to doubt my credibility, nor have I failed to admit a wrong or be accountable for a mistake. Now I'm a manipulator and a liar? I don't understand.
I know my heart and I know my intent and it's not fair that I've been tried, convicted and dismissed. He never asked what I meant before making this judgment call, he simply told me that he's very adept at recognizing manipulation because he's been trained in spotting it (in a fashion) and that this is just plain what I did. Period.
I can't imagine why someone would cling so firmly to this unless there was some personal reason. And the craziest part is that I've met many of his prior S/Os and many of them are not as straightforward, candid, rational and willing to compromise as I have been.
Maybe I'm supposed to see that I've been jettisoned as both lover and friend and when I didn't make that easy by being a bitch and giving him a reason to dismiss me, he had to make one up?
Or maybe I really am nuts.
Either way, I don't understand why someone who insists I tried to manipulate them would still want to be my friend. It makes no sense: "You're a sneaky, self-serving person who tries to get what she wants by using underhanded tactics...but we can still be pals?" Really?