I had problems with the mindset of Italian bird I was seeing exclusively last summer.

On a night out, a day after she'd said how much she liked me, she behaved in a hot-and-cold daft way over an issue which SHE herself had created, including her storming off.

Two days later, she sent me a text apologising for her behaviour.

Instead of me replying with an it's-OK no-problem reassuring nicey vibe (e.g. such as the text you used Midas which included "Ok babe,I get it, don't worry"), I huffed and puffed to decide upon the most enigmatic Rebus-like confident, terse and seemingly closed response.



After a think, I fired off a short text message response that simply read:

I cannot tolerate your petulance



From the feedback I got from her later (we got back together again), the enigmatic and terse nature of it went off like wildfire. When she received the text message, she even asked what the meaning of the word "petulance" was to the English person opposite her in the train! She fought to win me back (little did she know she didn't have to fight! Ha!)

These five words gave me back control.

I sent these five words with a risk of losing her -- I gave a shit, as still wanted to see her, but only an altered version of her who didn't have hot-and-cold daft explosive behaviour.