John Cusack holding a boombox outside your window. ‘Will you marry me?’ alight in candles on your driveway. A dozen roses sent to your office. A barbershop quartet at your door.

For most of us, the grand romantic gesture is something confined to the silver screen; a mere daydream that distracts us while we stand squashed between the armpits of perspiring commuters.

But what of the more low-key symbols of love - the quiet, understated kind that millions of couples share on a daily basis?

Illustrator Philippa Rice has created a comic book based on the subtle moments of joy and companionship experienced when a couple lives together.

Rice’s simple red and black line drawings form part of her (aptly named) book Soppy, which was created as a personal diary to document the love she feels in all the small moments of life, living with her boyfriend Luke. 

“I've been keeping diaries of comics and drawings for a long time but I started drawing them in this style with the red and black inks for my boyfriend Luke,” Rice tells Stylist.co.uk.

“Everything in the book is a real moment from my diaries. The idea is to be able to read it back and always remember what our life was like at that time,” she says.

From walking home together hand-in-hand in the rain, to sitting beside each other in bed reading or even navigating the small kitchen whilst cooking together, Rice's illustrations remind us that the quotidian displays of love - though regularly overlooked-  are often the most important.

When love means honesty is always OK...

When building your IKEA billy bookcase is the best weekend activity ever...

When making tea is a two-person job...

When a post-work debrief is the best kind of pillow-talk...

When the gas bill is a watershed moment...

When bedtime is a human-sized game of Tetris...

When the takeaway coin toss is double-sided...

When oral hygiene is super fun...

When you're protected on a rainy day...

When being stubborn is the only way...

And when a hug is simply the best...

See Phillipa Rice create her beautiful illustrations in the video, below.