Response to Oscar-worthy tantrum

God I feel miserable.  Maybe hurt and sorry for myself is a better description, I don’t know.  Physically, this is the third day in a row I’ve had pain, and I’m clutching a hot water bottle right now.  It’s the second day I’ve been too weak to cook any dinner, and the expensive chicken I bought is going past it’s use-by date uncooked in the fridge. 

Can’t reach any of my friends or family.  What I’m really upset over is emails from Dave.  I told him, in a rather matter-of-fact manner, I thought, that he was writing me more emails than I could respond to, and also mentioned an email that I’d been bothered by (one where he’d tried to crack onto me, though I didn’t mention that).  This was after he asked what was wrong.

He responded with a histrionic and emotionally manipulative email, going on about how he’d "trusted me", that I’d "embarrassed him", that I was being awfully harsh and… to have a nice life.  It was also full of excuses for his behaviour, complaints about my email, and contained not a single concession to the concerns I’d raised. 

Intellectually, I can see his outburst is more deserving of an Oscar than a reply.  I can also see that he’s trying to emotionally blackmail me and that he is, to be blunt, throwing a giant hissy fit.  And I can see that I’m doing none of those things.  My email may have been a little strained and formal, but it was polite and respectful. 

And yet emotionally, I doubt myself and wonder if he’s right.  Am I a completely tactless bitch?  Was I being unforgivably horrible in asking him to write me fewer emails (each day) and mentioning that his (trying-to-crack-onto-me) email had bothered me?  I just don’t know what else I could have said.  I know I was fuming mad, but I thought I’d been extremely restrained. 

I can understand that he feels embarrassed.  He sent eleven emails in two days, several about his ex-girlfriend woes.  But he sent all these without waiting for any replies.  So how can he blame me for his excessive sharing?  And all I said about it was "could you slow the rate of emails a bit?"  I said no more until he asked.  Even then, I said it as simply and tactfully as I could. 

Well, I was feeling crowded, not to mention crowded out of the conversation.  I could write back and say, "No, you’ve got it all wrong!"  But to be frank, I’m not highly motivated to attempt it at the moment.  Maybe I will go and have a nice life.