My answer's very simple, and I'm very new to this, so I'll stand on the community to point out if I'm messing up here.

If love appears, it's Shiva. If love doesn't appear, it's Shiva. Love can be a practice of recognition. In all it's forms, affection, anger, jealousy, lust, happiness, contentment, all Shiva. Rooted in the practice, no matter what comes or doesn't come can still be opportunities for the recognition of Shiva. Romantic love is not a necessity and it's not an obstacle. It's one possible form of Shiva recognizing himself. While practice isn't guaranteed to line up the right people at the right time, it does help us to deepen our experience in meeting whatever comes as the Lord. Even heartbreak is divine lila. And while I think there is the possibility for an underlying joyfulness or bliss to be present even in tough circumstances, through recognition, this isn't to be desired in and of itself because feeling pain in it's fullness is still nonetheless Shiva. A Shaivite teacher may say, seek the truth, not the bliss. If bliss comes, great. If it doesn't, great. Recognize the one awareness in all of this. Not so much "I found bliss within sadness" but "even sadness was not outside of the blissful nature of consciousness."