If they don’t say it, they may sometimes fail to make an emotional connection, or misunderstand each other. They may wonder ‘This person is standing right in front of me, but I don’t know how they feel about me.’ Sometimes, though, right then, the other person will do something that makes them think ‘Maybe they really do like me,’ and that’s such a happy moment.

‘I love you’ isn’t something you can only express in words. I want my readers to be able to pick up, on their own, that two characters love each other. But I build it into my stories that the characters themselves don’t quite realize it. I spend my days thinking of satisfying ways to do that.”