Hi Renee,
Your ex boyfriend hasn’t moved on quite yet.
He is trying to.
That is why he keeps trying to avoid eye contact, but then you end up catching him trying to look at you.
Even though the both of you agreed to maintain a friendship, he is not entirely sure about how to do this.
That is why he is being so awkward with this process.
He doesn’t know how much communicating and acknowledgment is appropriate when two people are trying to maintain a platonic relationship that was only recently a romantic one.
This is why he seems to give and take.
He will talk to you freely over text but then in public, he will try to ignore you as best he can.
He just doesn’t know how to navigate this new type of dynamic that the both of you have.
Until he is able to figure it out, his behavior will continue being this erratic.