Couples who only have "we like each other" fall apart in Act 2. Couples who have "we need to solve the murder / win the tournament / save the bookstore" have something to talk about. The romance should simmer while the plot boils.
In the honeymoon phase, the boundary between self and other dissolves. You like the same music. You finish each other’s sentences. Then, around year three, the horror sets in: You are different people. One needs silence; the other needs chatter. One saves money; the other spends it. The crisis of intimacy is not falling out of love—it is realizing that love requires you to hold your own identity while respecting the terrifying alienness of your partner. Great relationships are not two halves making a whole; they are two whole people choosing to stand in the same storm. public+bathroom+gay+sex+exclusive