“Did I, now?” She leaned forward and reached for his hands. “Listen, my boy, I can promise you, there will come a time when you’ll meet a girl, and you’ll both feel the same way about each other, and that will be wonderful. Truth is, you can’t make this Alicia change her ways or be something or someone she isn’t. You can come right out and tell her how you feel, and if she rejects or embarrasses you, then so be it, or you can let it go and forget about her, or you can just stay silent and go on pining and letting your grades slip.”

“But she makes me feel—”

“You own your feelings, Tyler.” He started to speak, but she raised her hand to stop him. “Let me finish, dear boy. I’ll tell it to you plain as day. You have choices. You can pine for a girl who isn’t available, a girl who toys with your affections, who, in plain words, is a self-centered, mean-spirited stinker who flirts with other boys. You can torment yourself over her, or you can get a grip on the situation and on yourself. You can accept reality and move on. In time, you’ll find a girl worthy of you. In matters of the heart, in matters of love, Tyler, if it’s this hard and this painful, it’s just not right, and that means that Alicia isn’t the girl for you.”

He sat there, tears stinging his eyes, not wanting to hear her hard words, for that is what they were to him. He had hoped for reassurance about Alicia, or some gimmick or trick to win her over, but Granny Grace had handed him a bitter dose of realism, and he was angry. Across the table he saw that her eyes were anxious, worried. Perhaps she knew how he was feeling. Tyler wished he had never told her about Alicia. He loved Alicia! But he knew that Granny Grace was right. Alicia was a selfish, mean-spirited flirt. She did know how he felt about her even if he hadn’t told her right out, and she toyed with his affections. Alicia Hibbs didn’t give a hoot about him.

With Granny Grace it was safe to express his emotions. Tyler crossed his arms on the table and lowered his head onto his arms.

Grace sat, hands folded in her lap, and waited. Finally she said, “I know this is hard to accept and it hurts. I am sorry.”

Tyler raised his head. Her eyes were teary. “It’s not what I wanted to hear, you know. It does hurt. It’s so hard.”

“It’s very hard,” she said. “Very hard.”

“Like for Romeo and Juliet?”

She smoothed his hair. “No, not like Romeo and Juliet. They loved each other. It was their parents who made all the trouble, who wanted to keep them apart.”