I messed up again.

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I seem to have a default setting of not trusting people at their word. I had a blow-out with a work buddy last week, so we stopped talking. He apologized to me, but instead of just getting over it there was a nagging chorus in my head. He's just placating me. He's just feeding me bs because I'm gullible like that. And so on.
Cut to today-- The guy is talking to me almost in tears. He tells me I'm the one person at work he could talk to. He said he was talking to everyone--wife, friends, coworkers about how bad he felt.
I feel guilty for hurting his feelings now. I feel confused, because I never thought that we were so tight. A little concerned that he seems so attached.

There, there. It's okay.

I realize there are worse problems to have, but I can't wrap my head around it. I don't enjoy appearing callous, and it seems to be a bad trend. I know how it feels to be on the other side of things, and I don't enjoy hurting people.

Ah, I've been there before. I've often rejected apologies purely on the basis that I suspected the other person was insincere. It's almost like a knee-jerk reaction after having been deceived so many previous times by people I care about. Unfortunately, it often ruins relationships/friendships and I'm actually not sure how often I was right to suspect insincerity or not. I think it's great that he made the continued effort to tell you how much he appreciates your friendship and though it may sound excessive (I'm glad you mentioned he has a wife ), perhaps it's just a byproduct of how great a friend you are. .

I think that if he apologized you should accept it and put the argument in the past. In other words, forgive, but that doesn't mean you have to forget. The relationship may be changed, but you can still move forward with it.