I had to think long and hard about writing an answer node to your
rescued nodeshell,
Ril, but I'm afraid I must disagree with you on this one. The reason I have to disagree is that I actually did it.
When I first met TLP, I was nuts about her. This was in high school, and I felt different about her (I just wanted to get the other girls I was with naked... yes, shallow but honest). There was something about TLP that made me feel weird inside.
Did I mention that she totally and completely hated my guts? Yup, she wanted absolutely nothing to do with me. Did that discourage me? Well, yes, but I was persistent.
We became friends after a year of my bugging her. We actually became such good friends that she would never even think of going out with me. It would be too weird. Did I let that keep me from hoping? No, but it sure did suck.
I introduced her to several folks whom she ended up dating. People I never would have allowed near her had she even shown a sign that she liked them. Talk about doing stupid shit... I was the King of furnishing her with beaus. Did I ever try to break up her relationships? Nope, she was happy at the time, so I was happy for her, even when her friends were yacking about how great she was in bed and when they were lip-locked on my couch. That's the mark of a true friend... putting themselves last.
When the breakups happened, she was there crying on my shoulder wondering why she couldn't find anyone like me. Someone who was always there when she needed comforting. Someone who looked out for her. Someone who gave her his last ten dollars so she could take the S.A.T.'s to go to college, and he had to go without eating for the week (I never told her that to this day).
Well, she moved away and I moved on. I was transferring to California and I ran into her in Texas. She said that she found someone, and that someone was me. That night she quit her job, packed her stuff and moved out to California with me. We were married a few months later, and we're still married after 14 years.
So I say yes, you can make someone love you, but it takes a lot of hard work and sacrifice. Take a look at my home node once in a while, and you may see one of the three reasons why I'm still happily married. It's worth all of the heart-wrenching pain in the end.