Dear Professor,

It's been a month but I still expect to see Beth at the breakfast table in the morning. The loss of her stings me like a knife.

But this email isn't supposed to be sad. It's a happy email. I may even use a smily emoticon at some point.

Amy is coming back home in a few days! She says she's got news for us but it probably isn't anything too important. I'm actually excited to see her. Excited to see Amy. Who knew that would ever happen?

Meg's kids are really cute but absolutely all over the place. They run and scream and never do what they're told. I can see that they're related to me.

I miss New York and hope to be back very soon. Eschool has been hard. I miss my real classes. I miss Kelsey and Annie and all the boarders .

I miss you.

I hope you're well. I hope your students aren't too horrible.

How are you, Professor?

-Jo

Professor Bhaer stated at the screen for a bit, reading the words over and over. It was the third email he'd gotten from her. They'd talked on the phone two time also.

He didn't realize how much he liked her until she was gone, as cliche as it sounds. Sure, he'd felt a little more than friendship towards her for a while. He just wrote it off. She was young and energetic and youthful. As childish as it sounds, he convicted himself it was a crush.

It wasn't though. This was much more than that.

He missed her everyday and hoped she'd come busting into his room telling him all the tedious details of her day. He'd thought she was loud and annoying but now things were too quiet without her here.

Kelsey kept bothering him about it.

"Are you missing her, Fritz?" She'd say in her playful tone. He'd act like he didn't hear her but she knew he did.

Jo would never feel the same. He was older than her by ten years. Surely she thought him an old man.

No. Maybe not. He was handsome, or at least he'd been told. And she did seem to like him. He was mature and smart and kind and loyal. Maybe something could happen.

Idiot. Nothing's happened. It's just Jo. Jo who wouldn't recognize affection if you slapped her in the face with it.

'How are you, Professor?' Her words laid out on the screen in front of him.

How am I?

I miss you. Actually, I'm not really sure what's going on. You just came into my life a few months go and changed everything. I never wanted any of this. I wanted to live alone. I never saw myself with anyone, especially not a crazy woman who's loud and brass.

But you just came here and flipped my work upside down. Do you even know you did that? Do you even know what you're doing to me now?

You weren't trying to. I know you weren't.

So tell me, Jo, why I feel this way. Why am I in love with you?

Of course, he didn't really send that. He'd never have the nerve to send that.

Dear Jo,

I'm fine. Glad things are going well for you and your family. I miss you too and hope to see you again soon.

-Professor Bhaer

Jo squinted, clicking her fingers on the wooden desk in her room. Such a short email. Maybe he was busy or something. Kind of dismissive.

She picked up her laptop and carried it over to her bed falling onto the purple bed cover.

Such a short email. Three sentences. Three sentences? What the hell? That's like the amount of sentences you write for a short answer question on a test.

She wasn't really sure why the three sentences offended her so much. They were friends, weren't they? Surely she meant more to him than three sentences.

Friends. Was that it? Just friends?

Then why did she get these weird feeling when he thought about him? That didn't seem normal.

And when she thought about him, her mind would go absolutely wild.

The thought of kissing him was so intense that she made her brain shut it off the moment it creeped into her fantasies.

Did she have more important things to think about than boys?

He wasn't a boy though, he was a man. And ten years older than her.

That was it! He just thought of her as some kid. Some kid that couldn't handle reading more than three sentences.

No. They'd had intelligent talks. He couldn't think she was stupid.

Maybe she wasn't pretty enough.

Oh God. Thinking about boys and about looks? I'm turning into Meg, she thought.

"Jo, supper's ready."

Think of the devil.

"Hey, Meg," Jo called after her sister.

"Yeah," Meg said, leaning against the doorframe.

Jo froze, not really sure what she was going to ask Meg. But love seemed to be Meg's thing. Meg was never scared of falling in love or having a family or thinking romantic thoughts.

"Boy trouble?" Meg raised a brow and sauntered into the room.

"How do you know?" Jo squeaked meekly.

"Please," Meg sat on the bed. "I recognize a girl in need. I knew one day you'd ask me for boy advice. So what is it: flirting, talking, compromise, kissing, sex-"

"Whoa," Jo stopped her, sitting up and crossing her legs. "Nothing like that. It's just that I...think I may like someone. And I think he may like me but I don't know for sure and I'm probably just being stupid about this and I know it's not important and I know I-"

Meg silenced her with a laugh, "It's that Professor, isn't it?"

"How did you..."

"I always knew you'd fall for a sexy, older, foreign man."

Jo felt her face flushing. Stupid body betraying her, "He's not..."

"Foreign?"

"Well, he lived in Germany for a while and has a little bit of accent but-"

Meg smiled wider, "Older?"

"I mean, he's thirty-"

"Sexy?"

"Shut up!" Jo ran a hand through her hair, realizing how kinky it had gotten. "It's not like that-"

Meg wiggled her brow, "Does he make you feel like a woman?"

"Stop!" Jo's voice cracked but she erupted into laughter along with Meg. She felt closer to Meg than she'd had in a while. Meg always seemed the antithesis of her. Meg always wanted different things. The opposite of what Jo wanted. "It's not like that-"

"Alright, alright," Meg sighed. "But you do think he's sexy."

Jo pursed her lips, "For arguments sake, let's say I do."

"Ha! I knew it!" Meg clapped. "I always knew you'd fall for an older, sexy, foreigner! Amy and I made a bet about this years ago! She owes me ten dollars!"

"Not helping. And don't make bets about my love life!"

Meg contained herself, "Sorry. Sorry. Anyway, I think you should go for it. He drove you four hours in the worst snow storm this year for Christ's sake. I call that a keeper." She stood up, making her way out of the room, "Supper's ready."

"Meg," Jo called again. "How did you know you loved John?"

Meg hesitated, "I always knew I'd get married. When I met John, I just knew."

"Oh," Jo said quietly. That wasn't how it had happened with her. This was gradual. It snuck up on her.

"People fall in love in all sorts of ways, Jo."

"Yeah," Jo said, glancing at her laptop again.

Three sentences. Nothing special.

Jo was just being silly.

Just being silly.