Love Is Blind's Dave Opens Up About His Split, Says He Refused to 'Force' His Family to 'Watch Me Say No at the Altar'

David "Dave" Bettenberg is standing by his truth, even if his experience on Love Is Blind didn't go exactly as planned.

In season 8, fans watched as Dave, 33, formed a connection with Lauren O'Brien in the pods before proposing to her sight unseen. Things appeared to be smooth sailing for the pair until it was revealed that Lauren, 31, had been seeing a man before coming on the show — and Dave's inner circle happened to know him.

The medical device sales employee then started to question Lauren's intentions and whether she was truly ready for marriage. They failed to see eye-to-eye on the topic or come to an understanding, before ultimately calling it quits in episode 11.

Dave now tells PEOPLE "the reason it didn't work out was mostly the timeline of everything" combined with the fact that he didn't know the truth about Lauren's relations with this man.

"I think the whole situation of her having a 'boyfriend' going into it and me having to experience and try to play — not play two different roles, but I was trying to be the best to everybody and trying to figure this out," he recalls. "This is coming from not only my sister, who knows this guy's best friend but also, my really close college friends that know him [and] were all telling me that they had been dating for three months, she was staying at his place the week before she left."

"I am hearing all these things and I'm just like, there's just no way I'm going to marry this person if that's what she was doing coming into it," he explains. "I just can't justify that."

Reflecting on the demise of their relationship, Dave admits he would've stayed with Lauren and "been okay with that whole situation" if this were only "an experiment to find somebody to date, find somebody that you connect with and you just want to date for a while and then see if it works."

"But having to explain that to — I know my sister's a big part of it. But the reason she's such a big part of that is because she knows the guy that Lauren had been 'seeing,' and she was just like, there's just absolutely no way," he explains. "And I got to the point where I was like, I'm not going to force my best friends and family members to come watch me say no at the altar when I knew that was going to be my answer based off of the information I had at that time."

"I just thought it was pointless," he adds.

Though Lauren insisted many times that they weren't serious and begged Dave to let her explain herself to his friends and family, he never gave her the chance.

"I'm just making the best judgment call I can in that time with the information that I have from people that I trust," Dave explains of his reasoning. "They're really close friends of mine. And then obviously my sister. There was no way I was going to spin that in [Lauren's] favor unfortunately at the time. And me and Lauren have discussed too, and I was like, 'Hey, I hope whatever they show when it comes out, I hope you understand. That's how I felt in that time.' It was really hard."

"I thought I'd finally put myself out there and I don't usually do that. And then just to have it blow up in my face was really hard to deal with," he notes.

But Lauren saw it differently, telling PEOPLE: "I say it very clearly and I still stand by everything I said. This guy knew that I was having casting conversations the entire time that we were hooking up. And this was a friends with benefits. And I truly do think that he also saw it that way at the time."

She continues of Dave, "I think it was fair of him to question me. I don't think it was fair to not let me be part of the conversation or to not hear me out."

"At the time, I will say I was really conflicted on who is in the right here. Am I not reading this right? Did I f--- up and or is Dave over-exaggerating? I really did kind of grapple with the truth, but at the end of the day I was like, I know my story and I know the narrative and I know everything about this. So I just couldn't fully see why it was breaking up an engagement," she adds.

Though things didn't work out for them in the long run, Dave says he's still optimistic for love in the future.

"I'm absolutely ready for marriage. I think going into the experiment, I was testing myself. I did not ever think it was going to work for me," he says. "I thought I was going to be there for a few days and be on my way. But I feel like what I've learned most about myself is just I can be vulnerable and I can put myself out there to meet the love of my life and who I'm going to spend the rest of my life with. I think that's something I've been running away from for a while, and it's definitely something I learned about myself."

Episodes 1-12 of Love Is Blind season 8 are now streaming on Netflix. The finale drops Friday, March 7, followed by the season 8 reunion on Sunday, March 9 at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT.