Love Is Blind's Mason Opens Up About His Breakup from Meg: 'I Don't Want to Lose Her' (Exclusive) liennhi

Warning: this story contains spoilers from Love Is Blind season 8.

Love Is Blind's Mason Horacek is shedding more light on his post-show romance with Meg Fink.

Towards the end of the Netflix series' eighth season, fans learned that Mason, 33, reconnected with Meg, 31, outside of the pods and they started dating, following his breakup with fellow participant Madison Errichiello.

However, things ultimately didn't work out for the pair, as revealed in the season 8 reunion on Sunday, March 9 — and now, Mason is telling PEOPLE what went wrong.

"She was my girlfriend at two points within the last year. Right now, we're just best friends, so we tried dating," he explains. "It's all good. She's still in my life, regardless if she's my significant other or just best friend. I don't want to lose her."

The cinematographer — who was initially dumped in the pods by Meg after she discovered he had been saying the same things to her and Madison — notes that he and Meg "had some tough conversations [while] we were dating, saying we both feel like something's missing here."

As a result, he says they "took time away from each other" and eventually "tried it again," but they "ended up in the same spot and decided that we value each other's friendship too much to lose it."

"So we're just going to ride it out and see where we're at in that aspect," he adds.

Speaking to PEOPLE about how they reconnected, which was revealed in episode 11 when they arrived at the cast gathering hand-in-hand, Mason recalls, "When I got out of the pods the next day, I spent just hours searching for Meg on my phone. She gave me her two middle names, so I even had an upper hand there and I still just could not find her."

"I was about to take off back to Minneapolis and right as we started rolling on the tarmac, I got a DM from Meg saying, 'Hey, how you doing?' And then I told her, 'I'm doing a lot worse now that I know that you're gorgeous,'" he admits.

The two started talking and Mason says he owned up to his missteps, telling her, "The situation was pretty rough and I would love to explain my perspective on everything if I ever get a chance while you're in Minneapolis."

Meg ended up agreeing and the two eventually met up. But, ahead of their meeting, Mason says Meg had an important request.

"She asked me if I still have my reveal outfit. And I was like, 'Yeah.' And she's like, 'Okay, well I still need to wear mine and I won't have a chance now.' So we both agreed to having our reveal outfits on and met up at her apartment for the first time," he recalls of the moment, which was shown in the season 8 reunion. "We just walked in and did our own little personal reveal in our living room and just connected and kind of explained the whole situation. And yeah, we've been super-duper close ever since and it's been great."

Though things ultimately didn't work out in their favor, Mason says he has no regrets about his actions on the show or how things unfolded with Meg.

"Looking back at everything, I feel like I got a pretty good situation out of everything because I've got Meg in my life," he says. "If we would've made it to the weddings, there was more of a risk that we could have ran into some more hard times and more pressure ... just seeing what the others experienced and hearing what they went through. There was a lot of pressure just leading up to that point."

"So I think we had a fair shake at being friends and exploring our relationship outside of that realm ... as opposed to making it that far and trying to make a marriage work," he adds. "So I don't think I have many regrets."

Mason also doesn't believe that their awkward beginnings and his actions inside the pods impacted the end of his relationship with Meg.

"I know Meg is a very forgiving and caring and honest person and she saw my perspective and where I was coming from during the whole situation," he says. "So I don't think the show, in that aspect, played a factor to us not working [out]. We had a fair shot at it and just kind of felt like something was missing."

"That doesn't dismiss ever exploring it sometime down the road, but for now we're doing what's best for us," he adds. "This is bigger than a reality show. This is our lives."

As for whether or not he thinks there's a future with Meg down the line? "I wouldn't rule Meg out," he says. "I'd say sometime down the road if we're both in the right place, right head space, then yeah, we'd probably give it another chance."

Until then, Mason says: "If I ever get married, I want to be with my partner for a good two, three years maybe. Just to make sure we can work things out throughout an extended period before we commit. I'm not trying to get married in a month anymore, learned my lesson there!"

Love Is Blind season 8 is now streaming in full on Netflix.