He isn't a sleezy, smooth talking seducer. He's just a scared neurotic inside that's lost and confused. He doesn't know what he wants, and when he finally gets a glimpse of what his old life was like he desperately wants to get back to it.
The irony is that when he confronts the old him, the old him want's the flakey lifestyle. This represents an ONGOING turmoil, whereby aversion turns into desire and desire turns into aversion. His fear of settling down turns into a desire to feel fulfilled, and his frustration and inability to commit turns into the aversive neurotic. It's actually better to conceive of both characters as process of change in eitehr direction, instead of fixed points on either side of a continuum.