The honest five love languages

The honest five love languages for ladies

1. Say it with a kiss(y face emoji)
I don’t care if you’re six-foot-seven and sporting a neck beard, you’re never too manly to send your lovely lady a kissy face emoji.

In fact, it’s weird if you don’t.

Emojis are the hallmark of modern communication — saying a lot by saying absolutely nothing at all. And like most forms of communication in successful relationships, they’re meant to be mutual. If she sends a kissy face emoji and you don’t reciprocate with at least blushing smiley face, you may as well have high-fived her when she leaned in for a hug.
Don’t bother calling an ambulance, your flirtationship is as good as dead.

2. Say it with a pizza
Or a burrito. Or a candy bar. Or the much-loved Twitter classic, a single Pringle on her doorstep at 3 a.m.

Admittedly, this method of communicating love isn’t exclusive to the Internet Age — or exclusive to romantic relationships. Breaking bread together is a time-tested method of showing you’re *with* someone — as a friend, or as a couple. At the risk of stepping into sacrilegious territory, even Jesus did it.

So don’t just share that Little Caesar’s slice with your homies, share some love with your lady, too. It’s one of the easiest and most effective ways to show someone you care.
And remember, receiving or refusing food can have just as much meaning as giving it. If you offer to grab her some McNuggets on your way home from work and she says she’s not hungry, you might have a problem on your hands.*

*(Just kidding. There doesn’t have to be a double meaning embedded in everything women do. Just most things).

3. Tell me I’m pretty (by liking my selfie)
In the Internet Age, nonverbal communication means just as much as verbal. Sometimes more. These days, a double-tap on your crush’s selfie is just as good as saying, “Hello, you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

That’s not to say you shouldn’t compliment your lady in person. Definitely do that, too. Every other sentence out of your mouth should be something along the lines of “By the way, you’re beautiful.” Pro tip: it’s also an excellent way to soften the blow when you’ve got some potentially devastating news, like so:

“Um hi, remember when I said we could go see that rom-com starring that blonde lady and the awkward dude who may have been an extra in Mad Men? Well, actually I have to work. And by the way, you’re gorgeous.”

“Hey, sorry I chose to play video games instead of go on a date with you. And by the way, you’re beautiful.” (Don’t expect a text back on that one, but it’s a good way to make sure she might not hate you five-ever.)

Even better, communicate your compliments completely via emoji.

4. Rip Netflix and Chill out of your dating playbook
Now, burn the book and start over from scratch.

Nothing can ruin a good first kiss like the blood-curdling screams of the latest zombie plague victim on The Walking Dead.

Netflix and Chill is a great go-to date idea if you want your crush to fall in love with that dude she told you not to worry about, who it turns out doesn’t use her as a human throw pillow and fall asleep on her every time they hang out. His name is Chad, by the way, but you won’t find that out until their engagement announcement shows up in your mailbox six months from now.

Let me be clear — Netflix and Chill isn’t bad. It’s great, in fact. It’s just the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop. It’s your reward when you’ve upgraded from flirtationship status to MCM- and WCW-ing each other.**

And even when you’ve licked your way to the center of the Tootsie Pop, don’t make Netflix and Chill your go-to. Pass go, collect your $200, and move on with life. Netflix and Chill is the Beto’s breakfast burrito of dating — it’s always better in moderation.

**False. You should never MCM or WCW anyone, ever. If John Legend and Chrissy Teigen can be literal #RelationshipGoals without ever employing the unmentionable hashtags, you can, too.

5. Be nice to me when I know I’m being a b****
This is the part where I stop pretending to speak for women and just speak for myself (and the roommates whose brains I picked in preparation for writing this). Sometimes, I can be a little… grouchy — particularly when hungry (see number 2 above). Also impatient, easily irritated and maybe a little bit whiny. And the best thing a guy can do in those situations is not to immediately un-bae me, but to be patient with me.

Call it what you want — flirtationship, relationship, “just hanging out” — they all require patience. And part of that is understanding that contrary to what I may have managed to convince you during the early stages of dating, I am a human being. So is every woman. We’re absolutely not perfect and I’d venture to say we’re almost always aware when our not-so-perfect side is showing.

The guaranteed way to a girl’s heart (at least this girl’s) isn’t always through showering them with gifts or heart-eyes emojis. Sometimes, it’s just letting them be what they are. It’s accepting their human-ness, forgiving them when they cross the line and loving them anyway. (Yes, I used the L-word. Don’t freak out.)

— Alyssa Roberts is by no means a relationship expert. The weirdest movie she ever “Netflix and Chilled” to was “13th.”

1. Would it kill you to leave a compliment?Look, I’ve compiled a comprehensive list of people in every guy’s life who gives them frequent, honest compliments — it’s one name long, and that name is our mother’s. We don’t meet up with our dude friends and lock down a whole day’s fill of positive affirmation the way you girls do. We don’t notice new pants or hair styles, we just nod to each other at the bus stop as if to say “Hey, looks like we’re both waiting for the same bus. Nice.”

So anytime you notice us looking nice, smelling nice or working hard maybe float a compliment our way. We’ll almost definitely think you’re just being sarcastic at first, so give us time to adjust.

2. So, cupcakes are amazingThis is sort of old school, but even if you’re not one for the culinary arts there are plenty of ways to show your love with sugary treats. Would you appreciate being surprised with a dozen roses on a completely random day of the year? Nice, right? Apply that principle to a dozen maple bars from a local bakery.

 If you’re feeling adventurous, type “chocolate chip cookies” into a Pinterest search bar and just see what freaking happens.If you don’t have time for kitchen experimentation, stores literally sell pre-made cookie dough in the back by the milk and eggs. Throw some dough on a pan, throw the pan in the oven, make the whole place smell like cookies — congratulations, you just won the game.

3. Let us guest-star on your InstagramIt’s fine that you want your Instagram page to be all about you and your besties from high school — those are the people who check it the most anyway. But every once in awhile some of your thirsty followers get a little too bold with those winky face emojis, and we don’t want to be the jerk who steps in and calls them out. Instead, take a cutesy pic of the both of us, turn it black and white and post that with a relationship goals hashtag.

This probably seems like a pretty serious relationship step, and in all honesty maybe it is, but if you really care about us only good things will come of it. Your girl friends will swoon, and your guy friends who didn’t know you had a boyfriend will back the hell off for a few weeks.

Bonus — take down the unnecessary photos of your exes still on your Instagram without saying anything. We’ll love you for it.

It’s our job to know when to take you on real adventurous dates, and when to grab just a pizza and stay in. Dating you may be awesome, but solving that puzzle on a weekly basis can be tiresome. Sometimes — and we’re talking like once every five times — let us pick the movie, even if it’s kind of a guy movie. “Pacific Rim” has a better plot than most people give it credit for. “Jaws “ is a classic. Maybe you’ll discover there’s room in your DVD library for a few dude films.

Also, letting us pick the movie and falling asleep fifteen minutes in doesn’t count.

This is so important. We are invested in our sports teams. They matter to us. This doesn’t have to make sense to you, but if you’re not much of a sports person yourself just accept this for what it is. Sports is an extremely one-sided relationship, but one most of us don’t have the strength to get out of. So when you playfully act like you’re rooting for the Patriots because of Tom Brady’s chiseled good looks, it hurts. We know you’re just being playful, but within the deepest chambers of every man’s heart lies the innate, inescapable fear of their lady leaving them for Tom Brady. By all means find fun ways of goofing around with us, but don’t feed that fear.

You don’t have to take sports seriously, but know that we do, and that siding with our team’s arch-enemy is a declaration of war. Your cuteness deserves better than that trash Lakers jersey.