Discussions

After dating my fair share of jerks, watching my girl friends get screwed by men, and seeing my guy friends treat women like dirt, I've kind of lost my faith in men. So I've been single for over a year and a half, refusing to settle for yet another a-hole.  
 
Now, I've stumbled upon an absolute prince. I've known him for a few years, but we just started hanging out again, and he's made it pretty clear that he's interested in me. He's an old school gentleman, opening ever door I try to go through, paying for everything no matter how hard I argue, helping me with big jobs like moving or cleaning. He compliments me all the time and has boosted my confidence levels through the roof! He respects me, he's honest with me, and he makes no secret about his feelings for me.  
 
With all that said, he recently got out of a pretty serious relationship, and it was a bad break up. I've asked him multiple times to be single for a while, but he says he's liked me for years and doesn't want to risk losing me, that he doesn't need more time being single, and that he's had options, and he knows what he wants - me.  
 
Well after a few weeks of dating and 1 day of official "boyfriend/girlfriend" status, he went on a week long trip back home. The day he left I texted him that I wanted to change my Facebook Relationship status, and he said he'd be deleting his Facebook account soon anyway so not to bother changing it... so of course, with my history of men, I assumed this meant he wanted to keep our relationship a secret while he was away so he could "do what men do"... if you know what I mean. I ended up working myself into tears, positive he was down there with other women, and ended up asking him if we could hold off on this relationship until he got back. Of course, he agreed, saying he didn't want to do anything that made me uncomfortable.  
 
Talking to my friends and family about this, we've all decided I'm crazy. He has done nothing to make me lose my trust in him. In fact, he will hand me his phone and tell me to play with it, go through it, whatever I want. He tells me what girls text him, what they're saying, what he says back. He even told me that he went to see a friend of his who had a crush on him to explain that he was seeing someone else. Everyone agrees, this guy is amazing, and I've just been hurt in the past and am scared of losing this one to the common male disease known as "The Jerk Effect"  
 
How the heck can I get over what's happened to me in the past, and let this great guy into my heart, giving him the trust he deserves. Has anyone ever been through this before?