It doesn't matter if the relationship is a friendship or a romantic one, I think it's really important -and really nice :)- to feel this way with the people you love.
It is interesting that “want” (the noun) means “a lack or deficiency of something”. I guess, “to want” would mean to experience this lack or deficiency. To want is to feel a void.
Mathematics is his life. But mathematics is also the reason he lost the girl of his dreams 19 years, 10 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 3 hours, 27 minutes and, em, 63 seconds ago.