Dignity & Grace After Gimpdom

I stopped by the cost accountant's office this afternoon to ask her about the NBA party she's having tomorrow evening. While we were talking, Carlos' number popped up on her caller ID. While they had their friendly chat, it hit me...I have been a fool for 8 years!

I realized that although he may have been interested in more in the beginning, my desperate, clingy behavior after we started a physically intimate relationship did nothing but make me seem more like a doormat than a potential life partner. What he'd wanted most from the beginning was a friendship with a co-worker (much like the one he's developing with her), but because I continually thought that sex = love, I taught him to treat me in any old way he chose...regardless of my feelings. I misinterpreted his actions and reacted in what (in a normally socialized person's mind) would be considered insane.

So now the question is, how do I move forward with dignity & grace after having played the gimp for so long?