Does he just need time?

k so im dating this guy and my friend is telling me all this stuff shes hearing about how hes only using me and stuff which i kno is not tru...and my gut told me not to say anything but i dIdnt follow my heart and i brought it up and he got rele fed upp b.c this has happend before about ppl talkin about him..and the right thing to do was to tell him who was telling me this stuff about him so i did...but now i dont kno what he wants first he said he wanted to just be friends..and than he said he still wants to be more than friends and try to work it out...he txted me when all this started and hes like if i kno whos saying sh.it than i can get to the bottom of it and i can comfortably be with u. Today i saw him at work and we talked a bit and stuff but it feels different..do u think he just needs time to figure everything out?