Have you ever typed “How do I know if he likes me?” into a search engine? I totally understand that you may not be willing to admit to such an act. But even if you haven’t done it, you probably know someone who has. I mean, there’s a reason why articles like that exist. By Linn Martinussen.

I have done it. (In my defence, it was quite a long time ago) I found myself in a real cliché of a situation. I had met the ultimate Latin lover, a true Romeo and his natural charms and quick wit had landed me in his fan club – a club which was inhabited by a few other women too.

I lived out every cliché you could possibly imagine. I paced up and down my room, listened to depressing French music and even tried writing poetry.

My Romeo was an artist and into existentialist philosophers. Well, the truth is I don’t know this for sure. Even if he wasn’t it was a good look for him, so I decided that he was and I tried to become an existentialist myself.

Then I did it. I Googled “How do I know if he likes me?”

Everything else aside, what frustrated me the most about all of the articles I found, was that all of them referred to visual clues – something that wasn’t going to help me a lot being blind.

There will be others like me asking the question “How can I tell if he likes me?” and having to figure this question out without sight. So, I have written a guide based on non-visual clues instead.

Experience has taught me how to suss out whether someone likes me or not and what I’ll say will make great sense, though it won’t be a surprise. Many people looking for a magical answer will not find it here. But here goes:

1. He compliments you on your looks, smell, voice, you name it. The more he does it, the more likely it is he is interested.

2. He communicates with you when you are not together and he takes the initiative. If he calls you a lot, emails or generally does all he can to make contact, it’s a good sign that he is interested. “Just checking how you are” is often code for “I need my daily you-fix”.

3. He wants to meet you often and he will make it happen. (Men like chasing, in most cases).

4. Finally, he’ll TELL you he likes you. Even a shy guy will eventually tell you that he likes you, if he really does.

So there you have it. This is a straight forward guide for both sighted and blind people alike. Eye contact and touching can be indicators, but it all boils down to communication. It really is that simple.

And just in case you were wondering, my Latin Romeo did not like me in that way. He did suggest that we meet a lot, but never carried it through and one day he just disappeared on me. That gave me a much clearer indication of whether he liked me or not, much more than Google ever could. I went back to my reggae, deleted all the stupid poetry I’d produced and admitted to myself that I much preferred thrillers to philosophy.