Our favorite love doctor, Debby Herbenick, explains what to do after accidentally sending a romantic—or possibly kinky—message to the wrong person. And what happens when you tweet said message publicly, instead of sending direct?

If you misdirected a line about what you plan on doing with your tongue later that night to a good friend rather than your partner, I'm sure everyone can be grownups and laugh that one off. Hey, at least you have a sex life, right?

But if you misdirected such a line to your boss? Well, let's just say that pretending your personal IM or Facebook accounts got hacked (or maybe your phone was stolen) may not be such a bad idea. Post a few ridiculous things or send another message to your boss pretending it's from the perpetrator, and then complain about how scary the internet is for the next few days at work. For a certain segment of the population, blaming "the Internet" tends to work. Problem solved.

Now, if you tweet something out loud that was meant to be a Secret Message (I'm against using the term "direct message", which I feel has no flavor whatsoever) you could delete it immediately but it may still show up in your followers' Twitter feed leaving you feeling panicked and scared. Instead, try to cover your tracks with another Tweet that makes the first one seem funny or silly and something you totally meant to write but in an ironic sort of way.

Read more of Dr. Debby's love advice here during Gizmodo's Bad Valentine celebration.

Debby Herbenick, PhD is a Research Scientist and Associate Director of The Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University, a sexual health educator at The Kinsey Institute and author of Because It Feels Good: A Woman's Guide to Sexual Pleasure and Satisfaction. She blogs at MySexProfessor.com.

Oops image by ktpupp/Flickr under CC license

Bad Valentine is our own special take on the beauty—and awkwardness—of geek love.