Counting Down The Days (Counting on Hockey #3)

Chapter 9: Unexpected Letter

It's been a month and a half since I talked to Cole at the Bruins game. Thanksgiving was last week, and I went home to Chicago to see my parents and Cara. My entire family was there, since we were in the middle of everyone. There was 34 people in our house at one time, each of them asking how I was doing with the break up. I finally decided to come back to Maine early, and I had Thanksgiving dinner with Noah's family. My parents repeatedly apologized for the way my family was acting, but I couldn't take it, so I left.

Peter and I decide to go back to my house for movie night. We've been hanging out lately, and the relationship seems to be getting serious, even though he knows about my break up with Cole and that I am definitely not ready for another relationship, so he told me we would go slow with it.

I grab the usual giant blanket from the downstairs closet, and Peter starts popcorn in the kitchen. Our usual routine for our movie nights. I grab our glasses of water and set them on the coffee table in the living room. I switch on our list of movies and go through them one by one. It's my turn to choose tonight, so I choose The Avengers. It's one of my favorite movies for a movie night, I've seen it a million times, and it gets better every time.

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The next morning I wake up like usual after a movie night with Peter. My head is back against his chest and his arm is wrapped around my waist. His head is propped up on the arm of the couch, my head lays between his arm and his shoulder and chest.

I move slowly away and head upstairs. I hop in the shower and get dressed. Like always, I hear the shower in the hall bathroom turn on as I finish in my own bathroom. He takes a shower here in the morning, then goes home, puts new clothes on, and in half an hour, he is back with me at my house. He takes the shower here, instead of in his dorms because they have the communal showers, and we all know how uncomfortable it is to shower there.

Peter heads back to his dorm to change clothes, and I start on breakfast for us. It's already 10:30, we woke up late today, so I make BLTs. While the bacon is cooking, I make a quick trip down my driveway to the mailbox, for both mine and Noah's mail. He still has magazines delivered here so he has another reason to come up here to see me and his family during hockey season.

At the bottom of the stack of mail is a yellow envelope with my name on it, literally. It's from the National Hockey Association. What!

I walk back into the house and throw everything on the kitchen table, except for the letter. I rip open the flap and pull out the three pieces of paper. I read the smallest piece first.

Meredith A,

The following letters are to congratulate you on your new internship. Please read the National Hockey Association letter first, and proceed to the Team's letter.

Thank you,

Vincent Quinn, Intern advisor.

What? Intern, Team, congratulate me? I open the NHL letter.

Dear Miss. Adams.

Your letter of recommendation from an NHL player made your application stand out. Our short letter to you on this day, November 14th, is to congratulate you on becoming an intern for the National Hockey League. Also enclosed in the envelope, is your letter from the team you will be joining for the rest of the season. If you choose to accept your new internship, see your head hockey coach of your college, Dennis Gendron, for more details of your internship.

Gary Bettman

No way, Gary Bettman wrote this letter. This can't be real. I didn't sign up for this though, but this is amazing. Who's my team? I hope it's close to here. I have to finish school.

As I open the last piece of paper, the first thing I see is the team Logo. The green cat with a red streak down the middle of it's head. This can't be happening. But I have to read it.

Meredith Adams,

Welcome to our team. We are very excited to have you join us at your earliest convenience. your application for our internships was impeccable. Your paid internship would start as early as after New Years. With your upcoming degree of journalism, you would be training with your head journalist, Maria Reed. I would love to meet you soon, I have heard much about you from many different people, including a few of our own players here at the Wild. See Coach Gendron as soon as possible for more details. I really hope you take this, you are over qualified for this job. I love writing these personal letters to our interns each year, but knowing more about the intern always seems to help. So, I thank you for applying to the NHL for the internship.

General Manager of Minnesota Wild,

Chuck Fletcher

This can't be happening. Not the Wild. I would take one up in Canada before I would go work at the Wild. It means I have to communicate with Cole on somewhat of a daily basis, right? I don't want this job if it means I have to talk to him. The journalists are always talking with the players, especially the new ones. He's a rookie this year.

I have to talk to coach Gendron, ASAP.