love and like synonyms

Attachment can be a dangerous thing. It's near impossible to completely trust anyone, so, one asks, why even try? If humans were pre-programmed, non-auto automatons, trust would be easy because one would be able to easily predict others thoughts and actions. There would be no unforeseeable behavior that causes people to recoil into reassessment over how much they really know about a cultivated relationship. But yet people do trust other people, allowing people to love other people. Trust is probably the single most important part of any and all relationships. Can I trust my parents to feed me? Can I trust my girlfriend to tell me exactly what she wants from me? Can I firmly believe that Spot the family dog will no longer defecate in the living room because we had him properly trained?

Without trust acting as a mindful restraint, the selfishness inherent in all humans lashes out. There ceases to be any consideration for other people, having been dropped into the harsh terrain of uncertainty, a human is conditioned to fight solely for it's survival: I will get what I deserve, myself, everyone else beware. Existing in an environment devoid of love is to be exposed to all the troubling thoughts that circulate through any sane persons mind without any sort of protection. A thunderstorm is just a thunderstorm to a child laying in it's parent's bed. But a thunderstorm to a person with no one on which to rely could be a host of things, all of which are apocalyptic in scale and horror.
That's why taking the time to truly know a person before becoming too involved is crucial. Ideally this can be accomplished by the brain in a matter of moments. The ability to read people is a gift that can be corruptible (see stereotyping, jane austen's pride & prejudice, your interaction with goth teenagers). But sometimes our brains read wrong. If you're an optimist, a romantic, you look always for the best parts of people, but certain personalities portray themselves innaccurately. In these cases, "I love you", a short verbal phrase covering a deep emotional attachment, is wasted on someone little better than a 68% air-filled Twinkie, a husk of a very real person you've conjectured in your mind and have now projected on a living, breathing thing. Yet still a thing who could never love you back satisfactorily, pushing you off the stable grounds of selfless saneness.
Which is why I am thankful for the people in my life now, who find exactly the right words I want to hear without any pressuring on my part. Who hold onto you exactly when you're ready to leave, to book it, to run away because you've lost hope in them.
Who, thank god, care about me more than I can care about myself, when selfishness and insanity have me delving into depression.
Whom I love, more than I could say in words, or in person, or through a telephone.
It may not be love. But it's trust that makes my heart go numb when it realizes, in it's sanguined chamber, that for once in it's life it can be passionate and not worry about getting carried away. Knowing that there's little it could make me say or do that would turn one away.
That's love. And a dash of respect to keep me interested, and caring about you so the relationship is symmetrical.
It's love. Not being fearful of doing the wrong thing, knowing you'll always care.
It's love. A slow pause before filling a conversation with everything, knowing it won't overload you.
It's love. A hug after hyperventilating from a panic attack caused by lifes uncertainties, suddenly filled with the certainty that you exist.
It's love. Trust me.