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A maelstrom of emotions brews inside of Jo. Tumultuous and frightening and new. Her lips still tingle from Laurie’s kiss and his words echo in her mind. One day she’ll meet a man whom she will love tremendously, whom she will want to marry. It can’t be true and yet—
She’d never wanted to hurt Laurie, but to be a wife... Even Laurie’s wife. An ache blooms in her gut as she watches Laurie’s retreating form grow smaller and smaller and, as many other times in her life, her mouth makes a decision before her brain does, and she’s running after him, yelling, ‘Teddy, wait!’
Laurie pauses, his shoulders hunched. He turns, slowly, watching Jo bound toward him from beneath his furrowed brow.
She catches up, breathless and perspiring. ‘I’m sorry.’
Laurie’s jaw twitches, eyes downcast. ‘You said so.’ He looks miserable.
Jo can’t imagine parting on these terms, of not having him in her life. She looks up at him and wonders: Does she really only see him as a brother? He is handsome, yes, and she loves him fiercely but does she love him as a wife loves a husband? She barely knows herself, how can she know that?
Again, her mouth speaks, voicing something she doesn’t realise she wants until she says it: ‘Will you wait?’
‘Wait for what?’
‘For me.’ When Laurie’s clouded expression doesn’t clear, she tries to explain, stumbling over her words: ‘I can’t be a wife, not now...’ She doesn’t add that she’s not yet sure she can ever be a wife, but says, ‘I— I want to see the world—’
Laurie’s eyes brighten for the first time since Jo pulled away from his embrace. ‘We can do that together. After I’m set up in London, we can go wherever we want.’
‘I know.’ Jo gives a small smile. ‘I know. But I want to see who I am on my own before I give you an answer.’
‘I thought you already had.’
Jo shakes her head.
A sweet breeze wafts by, bringing the scent of spring; Laurie ducks his gaze, fiddling with his jacket. ‘How long?’
She hadn’t thought about that, had only been desperate to fix this, to make sure she wouldn’t lose Laurie forever. ‘A year,’ she blurts out.
‘You want me to for wait a whole year’—Laurie raises his brows—‘not knowing if you will even say yes at the end?’
Something twists inside her, a desperate thing; it feels like this is slipping from her grasp. ‘No, I suppose not... That wouldn’t be fair.’
Laurie sighs. ‘Jo, you know I am an impatient man but...’ He smiles, small and sad, and adds, ‘I’ll wait for you.’
Jo leans up and kisses Laurie’s cheek, her stomach unclenching as she whispers, ‘Thank you,’ against his skin.
A year later, New York City
People bustle all around Jo as she pushes through the crowd. It’s become familiar, almost welcome, where it was once strange and overwhelming. But today the swarm of people that usually lights excitement in her blood only irritates her, because she’s late. She only hopes she isn’t too late.
Moments later, she spots him, unmistakable even through all the people, and her heart leaps within her breast. Time has not faded the image of him in her mind as she had worried it would. ‘Teddy!’ She waves her arm and he turns toward her.
The scowl on his face smooths and he rushes forward, meeting her in the middle of the street. They smile at each other, hands clasped tight, until they are nearly run over by a carriage, and she guides him to a small, homey restaurant she visits when she is feeling extravagant.
‘I’m sure this is nothing compared to the fine restaurants you frequent in London,’ she says, suddenly self-conscious.
‘No,’ Laurie says, ‘it’s much better.’
Jo smiles and smooths her skirt. She sneaks a glance at Laurie across the table, chiding herself for being so coy, and wondering if he was always so handsome.
There is a moment where they sit in silence, and Jo feels awkward in a way she never did with Laurie, before, but then they both speak at once—their words lost as they jumble together—and dissolve into fits of laughter.
It dispels the tension and, after that, they settle into familiarity, as though they had never been apart. In some ways, they haven’t. They had kept up a correspondence, but Jo had still worried that time and distance would erode their easy camaraderie. The bond they shared.
She knows, now, what that bond is.
She thinks of when she had shown Professor Bhaer one of Laurie’s letters, when he came upon her reading it. It was a frivolous letter, nothing private, something that could be shown to a trusted friend. But he had read it over, then said, ‘It sounds like this young man is very much in love with you,’ somehow seeing Laurie’s love in his recount of office drudgery.
Another time, she had shown him one of her own letters, equally frivolous, and he smiled at her, that gentle warm rare smile and said, ‘It sounds like you are very much in love with him, too.’
It was a shock, how little surprised she was by his words, and from that moment she looked forward to her planned meeting with Laurie, with both anxiety and eagerness. Only hoping Laurie was, indeed, still in love with her.
In the restaurant they order their food and talk of their lives since they parted, the intricacies one cannot convey in a letter, until their plates are cleared and there is little left to say. Laurie goes quiet, pensive as he stares out the window.
Jo longs to smooth the worry from his brow, hands itching with love to ease whatever burden he carries. It’s strange and thrilling.
But she can’t stand this silence between them. It’s suffocating. Just as she’s made up her mind to speak first—they never did stand on formality—Laurie breaks the silence:
‘Jo, I can’t wait any longer, I need to know—’ He ducks his head, a stray lock of hair falling into his face. He looks like the boy he was when they first met. ‘Have you changed your mind?’
Jo reaches across the table to take his hand. Her heart flutters when he looks up at her with surprise and hope. She smiles, soft and small, and says, ‘Yes, Teddy, I have.’