To take the chain from off the door

I'm good at the game, and I know it. I'm not trying to sound overly confident or egotistical, but I know what it takes to make a guy chase, or even better, what it takes to make a guy stay. Friends come to me for advice with guys: how to text, how to email, how to flirt, etc.
          But as I was getting ready for bed tonight, I wondered, why? Why is it that I know how to play this game? I realized just as soon as my heart is hammered into the ground, I pick up as many pieces as I can hold in my hands, and I force them back together.
           I do all of this -- the game playing, the fun, the flirting, the heartbreak, then repeat. I do it because I remember that happy and excited feeling of someone new. I do it because I have been in love and know what that feels like. Member explained it perfectly:

"Because I always told you, they etch themselves into your poetic memory. They carve out a place where you store your memories of them and the positive emotions you feel for them. Be grateful that you get to do that. You have the capacity to love and experience that. You're rich!"

It's true. I am rich with the ability to have loved and love again. So what does the game have to do with it? The game is the beginning and a test. The game plays the part of when you reel someone in and learn enough about that person to decide whether he's allowed in or not.
            I don't like playing this game, but it's a protective mechanism. It's like a maze of steel chains that intertwine across the door to my heart. And I know that until he wins that game and proves himself, I won't take the chain from off the door.