Romantic affection is not an autonomous aspect of life; it does not have a unique meaning. There is noguarantee that it will be redemptive (as idealizations of love may portray it as being).

Romantic affection is a unique avenue, qualitatively incomparable with other modes of experience. The opposite of love is not literal sequestration from other people; it is feeling alone in the middle of a crowd, or feeling ignored by a crowd.

You escape from isolation: not to a person who only duplicates you, but to one who intrigues and awes you. It's not a mirror for solipsism; it's the attraction of the unfathomable.

There are "relationships"--which may end in marriage--which reflect convenience and comfort. The pragmatic affair where you value the other for reliability and carrying their own weight and so forth (not the impossible dream).

The other person may have exactly those qualities which you feel incomplete for lacking. You may take the other person as a mentor in some aspect or aspects of life. So there is this complementarity. 

There is also the resonance, the mutual comprehension, the emotional support. The explosive emotional response.

Sex and sexual attraction are integral in this romantic affection. (When there is no sharing of perspectives, when the other is not fetching, then sex does not have the meaning it does in love.) Consenting sex need not be anything but a "reflex." Accompanying romantic love, it gains a meaning of acceptance, ecstasy, an abandonment of self to merge with another subjectivity. Real sex is overwhelmingly tactile. To touch the other person is "electric." Sex may offer a transfusion of vitality from the other person.

How another person's touch feels to you is a sign of how you feel about them.

Touching etc. as an expression of affection doesn't need a theoretical apology. It's the absence of such affection that requires an explanation.

Love means the richness of the encounter of another person, who echoes you, complements you. Who is a constant source of surprise. Who comprises an intent which you find fetching, which you admire, and yet which you do not circumscribe.

In life, one may become resigned to isolation and not experience the deficit as a vacancy. One is alone in a crowd, or is shouldered aside by the crowd. Then you meet someone whose comprehension resonates with yours, who has the same emotional dimensions, who accepts you, and at the same time may be different in a way which seems to complete you. Combined with the evocation of lust.

Love throws one in turmoil because of the shattering of one's isolation.Accompanying romantic love, it gains a meaning of acceptance, ecstasy, an abandonment of self to merge with another subjectivity. Real sex is overwhelmingly tactile. To touch the other person is "electric." Sex may offer a transfusion of vitality from the other person.