You can have a genuine feeling for a reason you have invented afterward.

The feeling comes first and the reason gets fitted afterwards. You liked them, or did not, or wanted the job, or refused it, and the explanation was constructed later to make the response intelligible. That does not make the feeling suspect. It means the account of it is a second thing, and often a poor guide to what happened.

When you catch yourself explaining a reaction fluently, note that fluency is not evidence. Ask what you felt before you had a reason. Sometimes the invented reason is worth abandoning while keeping the response it was covering for.