If only, I thought, I could talk to Eugene just one more time. This was before I came to understand that you cannot make someone fall in love with you But here's what you can do. By arguing and pleading and screaming and crying and throwing plates and phoning a lot and bringing hot food and sending flowers and buying gifts and doing unsolicited favors and remembering a birthday and being nice and declaring your abiding love and trying hard or sometimes merely by being present, you can make someone who was hitherto lukewarm really detest you.

Summary

This quote highlights the speaker's realization that love cannot be forced or manipulated. They express a longing to have one more conversation with Eugene, indicating their desire to win his love. However, they come to understand that genuine affection cannot be coerced. The quote suggests that rather than making someone fall in love with you, the attempts to force love - through arguments, pleas, manipulation, and excessive gestures - can push that person away, even turning their prior indifference into detest. It serves as a reminder that love cannot be controlled and should be nurtured naturally.

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