“She’s awfully pretty. She’s got long, dark hair and green eyes. But she’s a flirt. She flirts with me, and she flirts with other guys, too. Sometimes I think she likes me a lot. I like her a lot. And then she does something that makes me think she hates me.”

“And what would that be? What does she do that makes you think she dislikes you?” Grace asked softly.

“One thing I don’t like is that whenever I start to tell her anything about myself, what I like to read, or do, she changes the subject and talks about herself.”

“She sounds like a very self-centered young lady.”

“Maybe she is. She sure treats me with contempt in lab, as if I don’t know what I’m doing. And I do know. Only I get flustered standing next to her, and I make mistakes. I could kick myself. No wonder she thinks I’m an idiot.”

Grace realized how serious he was, how upset. “Is this affecting your grades, Tyler?”

He nodded.

“That’s not good, is it?”

“It sure isn’t.”

“Does this Alicia know how you feel about her?”

He shrugged and averted his eyes for a moment. “Sometimes I think she does. Sometimes I think she doesn’t care enough to want to know.”

“So you haven’t indicated to her how you feel, is that right?”

He pulled back from the table. “Heck no, I haven’t told her.” He shook his head. “I’d feel like a fool if she laughed in my face.”

Grace rubbed her forehead. “Lord, it’s been so long since I was in high school. How do young people today behave when they like someone?” She fell silent. Then she said, “Well, I can see where this is a problem, not to be sure how someone feels about you. Can you request a different lab partner? Is there another lab you could transfer to?”

“What’s that gonna solve?”

“Your chemistry grade, for one thing,” she replied.

When he did not answer, she said, “You don’t want to do that, do you? You want to be near her. Well, then, you’re part of the problem, aren’t you?”

He leaned toward her, his face flushed, his eyes anxious. “I guess I am, but Granny Grace, I never felt like this about a girl before. I like her a lot. Very much.”

“It won’t do a bit of good, then, for me to tell you that she may be the first but not the last girl you’ll fall in love with and be rejected by, or that you can’t make a person care for you because you care for them, or make them behave the way you want them to behave, so, I won’t say those things.”

Tyler laughed. “You just said all of those things, Granny Grace.”