To give a bit of context on the situation. I (22M) met this girl (22F) through dating apps in July last year and we talked for a while. She went on a trip with her family and I didn’t get a text back for the plans we had made so I hit her up later in August to set up a date. We officially saw each other for the first time in the beginning of August with a quick 30mins-1 hour date. For the next few weeks, we saw each other once per week, and texted each other mostly irregularly, most of the time to set up a date/night to see each other. In mid September, I hooked up with a girl for one night (we did not sleep together), it was a one time occurrence. I deeply regret it, now and never told her. We continued seeing each other for months later and in October/early November we put the tag of an exclusive relationship on us.
Fast-forward to earlier this week, we have been seeing each other for a bit over 6 months now officially, we were in bed talking about our previous relationships and yesterday night she called me. She specifically asked if I had hooked up with someone since I’ve known her so I told her the truth. We were in a 6-hour phone call yesterday talking about this and how she feels and now the relationship is in jeopardy. She feels disgusted, betrayed and angry at me for this.
On my side of things, I obviously feel disgusting cause I feel like I betrayed her and her trust she gave me. I do not want to invalidate her emotions and how she feels is alright. Though, the way I am seeing the situation is that at the beginning of things we were seeing each other but were not exclusive, thus she could have hooked up with someone and I wouldn’t have wanted to know. In my opinion, it would have been fair game. I don’t know if that way of feeling about it is even remotely valid. I know that trust is completely broken between us now, but I would never cheat on her. I kinda feel like it’s sad to break off the relationship based on something that happened when we barely knew each other, when the relationship was going so well recently.
Of course, whatever she decides to do with our relationship is up to her. She expects me to write her a message today and then she will decide if she wants to give us a chance. So my questions are, what could I say/do to save our relationship? Is the way I am seeing this beginning of relationship conflict valid?
TLDR: Hooked up with someone else, when I started seeing my current girlfriend. She learned about it recently, now the relationship is in jeopardy.