It was a romance for the ages. 

Like Romeo and Juliet and Carrie and Big before them, Geordie Shore’s Charlotte and Gary always found a way back to each other (a tender look at their many, many ups and downs here). They just never knew when to quit. Actually, that’s not true, they knew when to quit—they just didn’t know how to stay that way. 

Charlotte never let a little thing like having a boyfriend get in the way of reigniting things with Gary, just like Gary never let a little thing like Charlotte’s emotional wellbeing get in the way of him pulling other girls in front of her. They were 2010’s star-crossed lovers. He was ‘hers’ and she was ‘his’, for better or worse. Usually worse.

There are so many lessons we can learn from the Gaz and Charlotte years. Number one: always go to the bathroom before rolling around in bed with someone, lest you have a laughing fit, pee everywhere and completely ruin the mood. (Skip to 0.35 on the clip below, if you must.)

The second vital lesson from Gaz and Char? Don’t go back there. Do not do it. Not even to spoon (you know where that leads..).

It’s a tough pill to swallow (when they were good they were so good!), but I’d say that both Charlotte and Gary would have been a lot happier if they’d just called it a day after their first breakup in season 1 or something. 

I’m a big advocate of a clean break. I profess loudly and to anyone who’ll listen that once you’ve decided to end a relationship—or (savage) if it’s been decided for you—you should stay the course. Delete their number; change your Netflix password; cast out mutual friends—whatever you have to do to keep the past in the past.

This is the advice I often give to friends who find themselves umming and ahhing about an ex. A clean break really is the only way, without a doubt. One day I hope to actually follow this advice, too. 

Me? I go the way of Gaz and Char. Years ago, I spent an embarrassingly long time pining after a relationship that I ended—any pretence of self respect went out the window as I tried and tried some more to recapture some of that old spark that really was completely dead in the water. 

What’s tricky about exes is that it’s so hard to tell if a relationship really was that bad after it’s ended. Those annoying habits your ex had seem kind of adorable in hindsight and those things you considered deal-breakers when you were still cocooned within the warm and comforting blanket that is a relationship—well, were they, though? 

Take Charlotte and Gary, they really did have a lot of cute times (see: seasons 1 through to 13). That ex of mine wasn’t all bad either. He used to make me mixtapes (okay, mix-CDs, but that doesn’t have quite the same ring  to it) and pick me up at 3am from nights out, even when he had to get up early for work. He also took to throwing half-drunk beer cans around the place during heated arguments but hey, no one’s perfect. It was all very dramatic and messy, which, of course, was part of the fun. 

I read this quote recently that went something like, "If someone shows you their true self, believe them". In my and my ex’s case and in Charlotte and Gary’s, we all would have saved ourselves a lot of heartache if we’d just been willing to see the obvious: that, despite the actual, real love there, this was not a romantic situation that was going to work out. 

So, for those fresh out of a relationship you know wasn’t right, might I suggest not following in the footsteps of Charlotte and Gary, or me and my ex. Resist! Even if that just means not messaging your ex on a lonely old Valentine’s Day after a few wines: that’s a great start. 

Written by Alice Griffin, writer and editor-in-chief of MTV Australia. Follow Alice on Twitter @_alicegriffin.