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" You&amp;#039;re sitting on your living room couch, lost in the semi-ridiculous fantasyland of 27 Dresses or How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days for the tenth time. Harmless, right? Well, not quite: A new study suggests that getting too caught up in these flicks might subconsciously turn you into the Girlfriend from Hell. Researchers from Heriot-Watt University in Scotland found in their study that romantic comedies can create unrealistic expectations for love and relationships \u2014 especially when it comes to communication. Turns out that chicks who love romance flicks are prone to mind-reader-itis: that is, they expect their guy to know what they want or how they&amp;#039;re feeling without having to tell them. Think of all those movie moments when the lightbulb goes on for the guy and he suddenly knows exactly what&amp;#039;s wrong and the perfect way to fix it. Then, cue the over-the-top gestures like sending flowers to the chick&amp;#039;s apartment every hour on the hour, showing up on her doorstep with a limited-edition copy of her favorite childhood book (which he recalls from a casual mention when they first started dating years ago), and playing love songs outside her window in the rain. Just like real life! Not. Here are three signs that you might be falling into the rom-com trap.  You&amp;#039;re Constantly Thinking, &amp;quot;That Would Never Happen to Us!&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Any attitude that automatically presumes your relationship is invincible and beyond any serious problems qualifies as overoptimistic, and is a sign that you may have some unrealistic expectations,&amp;quot; says Paul Coleman, Psy.D., author of The Complete Idiot&amp;#039;s Guide to Intimacy. You might be convinced that he&amp;#039;d never lie to you, or you&amp;#039;d never cheat on him, but it&amp;#039;s important to face the facts and acknowledge that most relationships are dealt a shock or two at some point. To avoid letting it ruin what you have with your guy, &amp;quot;it&amp;#039;s better to have faith that you&amp;#039;ll each do your best and then cope with the big issues that arise, rather than having faith that no big problems will ever occur,&amp;quot; notes Coleman. In other words, don&amp;#039;t vow to never speak to him again when you find out he lied about going out with his buddies because you were sooo sure you could trust him and he totally violated that. Instead, understand that you&amp;#039;ll each feel betrayed or disappointed at some point, and be ready roll with the punches.  MORE: Want to whisper some sweet-nothings into his ear? Try one of our favorite love quotes! You&amp;#039;re Keeping Score (Me: 3, Him: 0) So you picked up dinner on the way to his place, got tickets for him to see his favorite team play at home, and told him how great he looks in that new sweater \u2014 all within the past week. Now you&amp;#039;re waiting for the sweet gesture that he&amp;#039;s going to repay your kindness with...but it never comes. You go from being disappointed to freakin&amp;#039; pissed at having such an ungrateful boyfriend. &amp;quot;When you do something for your guy and then get irritated when he doesn&amp;#039;t do something similar in return, you&amp;#039;re making an investment with the expectations of getting something back,&amp;quot; says Greg Baer, PhD, author of Real Love (reallove.com). The solution is simple. If you&amp;#039;re about to do something nice for your man, ask yourself whether or not you&amp;#039;d be mad if he didn&amp;#039;t return the gesture. If your intentions are purely to surprise him or make him happy, then go for it. If you&amp;#039;re secretly hoping it inspires him to suddenly transform into Gerard Butler in P.S. I Love You, then stop yourself then and there.  You&amp;#039;re Positive It&amp;#039;s in the Stars You&amp;#039;re both standing at the counter at Starbucks and the barista calls out the same exact drink for each of you, down to the skim milk and extra foam. If you somehow believe this means you&amp;#039;re soul mates, you have definitely seen too many chick flicks. Yes, you may have something uncannily in common with your guy, or maybe you both visited the same playground when you were five years old. But no, you&amp;#039;re not Kate Beckinsale, and this isn&amp;#039;t the set of Serendipity. In real life, things are just not that clear-cut. &amp;quot;Sometimes fate, if you believe in it, brings two people together to learn important life lessons, but not necessarily to be happy together for the rest of their lives,&amp;quot; says Coleman. Admit it: even as you&amp;#039;re thinking, please, I don&amp;#039;t even believe in destiny, you&amp;#039;ve also probably had at least one moment when you thought someone was meant for you because of some arbitrary similarity. The trick to escaping the rom-com trap? It&amp;#039;s simply this: stay in the real world, and keep communicating. Who knows \u2014 with a little help, you might even bring out your guy&amp;#039;s inner John Cusack. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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