These days just try mentioning those ‘three words’ and you will have every commitment phobe across continents running for cover. And if you are asking. ‘which three words?’ please go away, have a good think about the (non) status of your love life and consider yourself a hermit (oh and that, by the way, is one of the three words. No, not hermit you ditz. Love)

As for me, I’m ok with the I Love You(s). Been there, done that, seen it, said it, been blinded, fooled, struck, killed, threatened and driven to madness by it, etc, you see.  But that does not mean I am free of the 3-word-phobia. Far from it. There are exceptions but here are my 3 nemeses: anything for you.

These are the three most dangerous words I have encountered. When someone says this to me, I just melt, come part, die in their arms, am reduced to a silent, mouth-hanging-open gaping ape with heart melting and tears trembling to spill. I don’t know what it is about the words. Even as I write them I can feel the sensation of cognac trickling down the inside of me- gullet to gut. Even if I were to say them to others (which I have done on rare occasions-  to my closest friend, S, and maybe to my mother a few times).

Don’t ever say them to me.  I will come undone, unravel, and fall so fast and so irrevocably deep. If you are particulraly unfortunate, it will be you I fall for. But the one for whom I have written this knows I am talking about and only, to her.