“Tell the truth and shame the devil”. That’s what my dear old Gran used to say – before the barmy pixies infiltrated her skull and all she could witter on about was the ‘spoon pilferers’ who were allegedly responsible for nipping into her cutlery draw and stashing stolen spoons in her knickers.

Nutty pensioners aside, as a rule to live by, ‘ truth telling’ is not too shabby.

But of course there are times when an incy–wincy white fib really is the only course of action a person should take….

For some people flirting is an excruciating experience from which they would rather leapfrog backwards over flaming leopards than enter into. Most of the time this is neither here nor there. But when the flirt-o-phobe is a chum and she has the most enormous crush the universe has ever seen, you want to do something about it….

Jess really did fancy this lad, but because she seriously lacked in the confidence department she just didn’t know how to act. She merely spluttered, muttered and blushed whenever he was around.

So I decided to dust down my wings and get Cupid’s Bow out of storage – I told her the tiniest of lies.

I mentioned that “I overheard him telling his mate that he thought Jess was quite hot but he was a bit too nervous to ask her out”.

I didn’t make a big deal, just quickly slipped it into our conversation so that she didn’t get too over-excited, but that she began to think there was a chance he might like her.

This gave her the extra bit of sass she needed.

Now, when she saw him, she didn’t look at the floor and turn away – she returned her own ‘knowing’ smile in an attempt to reassure him there was no need to be nervous. She assumed that when he started to talk to her it was because he wanted to chat her up and so she instantly flirted without even thinking about it. In her brain she had to get across the message that if he only asked, they would live happily ever after.

Now we all know what happens when someone flirts with us….we like it, we get belly flutters, we get damp pants.

Often when people give us a flash of their flirtatious wares we start to see them in a whole new ‘rumpy-pumpy’ light.

And this was the case here.

Suddenly our man noticed Jess, the confidence and cheekiness bowled him over and within days they were inseparably connected at the lips.

So tis true. Sometimes a small lie to boost the confidence of a flirt-shy friend is the best thing you can do. But beware my Gran doesn’t hear you tell it; she might just set the spoon thieves onto you!

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