How Does His Sweet Bella Develop Its Romantic Tension?

Okay, so looking at the romantic tension in 'His Sweet Bella', it honestly feels like the slowest of slow burns imaginable. The author basically uses misunderstanding as the primary engine, and I'm starting to wonder if that's a bug or a feature. Bella's internal monologue obsesses over tiny gestures from the male lead, analyzing a single glance for three paragraphs, while he's off somewhere else being vaguely mysterious about his own feelings. It's a classic case of the characters being the last to know what the readers have figured out by chapter two.

What really grinds my gears sometimes is the constant near-miss structure. They'll almost confess, then get interrupted by a phone call or a side character barging in. After the fourth time it happens, you stop feeling the tension and start feeling manipulated. The development isn't so much a gradual incline as a flat line with a bunch of tiny, identical spikes. I know some people live for that 'will they, won't they' angst, but there's a point where it stops being anticipation and starts feeling like the author is just stalling for word count.

That said, the one element that kinda works for me is the subtle class difference that's hinted at but never fully explored. There's a scene where Bella misinterprets his expensive gift as a casual gesture, while he sees it as a huge declaration. Those moments of mismatched social understanding have a glimmer of something more interesting than the main plot. It's buried under layers of internal doubt, though. I keep reading mostly out of habit now, hoping it'll pay off, but the tension feels less like a simmer and more like a pot that's been left on a cold stove.