I went on holiday once to Italy, this was many years ago and I was standing near one of those places where everyone takes a certain picture of a very iconic view. And it was perfectly scenic and everything I imagined it to be. Except when I’d taken my picture and was waiting for those I was with to finish I looked in the opposite direction and I saw this thing that was so perfect that I’m sure it’s lodged in my brain as a core memory.

It was this couple in their late 40s or early 50s sitting on a bench facing the sea and her head was in his lap and he was reading a book. He probably wasn’t reading aloud to her but in my head, whenever I think of it, I usually think of him reading aloud to her from his book.

There are other inspirations as well. I recently rewatched Notting Hill and there’s a scene towards the end of that with a bench where Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant are acting out my Italy scene pretty closely. And there’s Alan Rickman as Colonel Brandon reading aloud to Marianne in Sense and Sensibility. And it felt like there was nothing more romantic than finding out that Pacey and Joey, after running away together for the summer on his boat had spent their evenings reading aloud to each other in their hammocks in Dawson’s Creek.

I get that there’s a lot of reasons that this particular thing is a fantasy of mine. But it has been since forever. With different partners the fantasy changes. With my ex, the fantasy was of him and I curled up together on (inexplicably) a single bed reading The Outsiders by SE Hinton to each other. With the English teacher, it was Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman and I wanted to position myself in such a way so I could see his face as he was reading to me. With a man I was romantically involved with for awhile, I thought of him reading Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery in his Mancunian accent. But the bones of it remain the same.

I love the idea of being pressed against someone as they read to me. I want the physical closeness of it, I want to hear their voice. I want whatever they’re reading to me to mean something, like it’s something we’re sharing with each other. It’s a pretty good picture of what I want with others – physical and emotional intimacy at the same time. And who knows? Hopefully we’ll soon be doing other things with our mouths other than reading aloud.