[Verse 1]
I see you watching me
Eyes on your target
It won't be too long before me and you
Are doing what lovers do
[Verse 2]
Clothes on the floor
We're exploring our bodies
Getting you off is my new favorite hobby
Lipstick on your neck brands like a tattoo
Cause that just how lovers do
[Chorus]
Ooh, love is just another four letter word
But that never stopped nobody
Ooh, either way we lose
Just like lovers, just like lovers do
[Verse 3]
His and hers closets are perfect for skeletons
Hiding resentment and shared infedelities
Cheers to regret, wash it down with some booze
[Chorus]
Ooh, love is just another four letter word
But that never stopped nobody
Ooh, either way we lose
Just like lovers, just like lovers do
[Bridge]
That's how it goes
So take care like a grown-up
Life's not a fairytale, it's hard to own up
Hire a hitman to take care of you
[Chorus]
Ooh, love is just another four letter word
But that never stopped nobody
Ooh, either way we lose
Just like lovers, just like lovers do
[Outro]
Mix drinks and smoke rings, it's already started
Let's roll the dice and we'll both make our moves
Playing like lovers do
The phrase “four-letter word” is often used to allude to obscenities.
For example, the words “Fuck,” “Cunt,” “Shit,” and “Crap,” are all four-letter swear words.
This suggests that their relationship started while both of them were under the influence of drugs and alcohol, or likely cross-faded.
At the beginning of the song, this line refers to their first meeting–the narrator’s lover checking her out, hoping to flirt with her.
But now it is much more malicious, likely referring to the fact he wishes to kill the narrator. She is a target in the same way a deer being hunted is.
Their toxic relationship has reached the boiling point–she has hired a hitman to kill him. The severity of their actions, and the “end it like lovers do” line once again brings back the pessimistic tone. “End it like lovers do” also alludes to the phrase “‘til death do us part,” which is part of the standard wedding vows where lovers promise to be with one another until they die.
Their relationship is so unhealthy and depressing it turns them both into alcoholics as a method of escape. The line “Drinking like lovers do” suggests that (at least in the narrator’s eyes) relationships are always bound to end up this way, and that they have throughout history (this ending is not uncommon), highlighting the narrator’s cynicism.
Keeping a “skeleton in the closet” refers to concealing a secret. In this case, the lovers hide affairs and bad feelings toward each other in matching couple’s closets.
The relationship that started so explosively is now crumbling due to poor communication and lack of effort.
“getting you off” is a euphemism for bringing a partner to orgasm.