Between Two Cities

Two Months Later

“She hasn’t left a single message.” Loui said to his teammates. He sat down on the couch and buried his face in hands. Everyone was relaxing at Ristuccia Arena after their two hour practice. It had been two months since Loui had talked to Millie. Every single time he tried to call her she wouldn’t answer and he never received a call back from her.

“Have you tried calling the Stars?” Shawn Thornton asked. Loui shook his head. Then a thought occurred to him; what it they found out about Millie and Jamie and let her go? He got up immediately and left the room to call the Stars Communications Department.

“Dallas Stars Communications Department this is Caroline.” A younger sounding lady answered the phone.

“Hi, could I please speak to Millie Eriksson?” Loui said. He began pacing back and forth. The other guys started peeking through the doorway.

“Um, I’m sorry sir but who is this?” Caroline responded to Loui. His eyebrows furrowed.

“What are you talking about? It’s Loui! Her brother!?” Loui said almost yelling.

“I’m sorry Mr. Eriksson but Millie Eriksson no longer works for the Dallas Stars Organization. She hasn’t for a couple months now…” Loui remained silent for the longest time. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“Do you know the reason why she isn’t there anymore?” Loui asked in a much more calming tone.

“She unfortunately resigned from the job… I’m sorry Mr. Eriksson but someone is trying to call. I need to go. Have a great day and I’m sorry for whatever happened to your sister.”

“No wait!” It was too late. Caroline had hung up. Loui was worried beyond belief about Millie now. He shook his head and then angrily chucked his phone at the wall. The room filled with his teammates saying “woah woah woah” and walking up to him.

“They don’t know where she is!” Loui yelled.

“What do you mean?” Patrice Bergeron asked.

“She quit her job and they have no idea what she’s up to now. For all we know she could be somewhere else in this god damn country!” Loui was on the verge of tears now. He was clearly worried about his little sister.
“Hang on.” Reilly Smith who was also Millie’s good friend said. Reilly walked out of the room and came back in with his phone. He began to dial Jamie’s number. All eyes were on him. Once Jamie answered, Reilly put him on speaker phone.

“Hey Jamie man what’s going on?” Reilly greeted him.

“Nothing much how bout you bud?” Jamie asked.

“Same but hey listen I have a question for you.”

“Okay, shoot.”

“Where’s Millie?” Reilly said in a serious tone. It was silent for a bit but then Jamie sighed.

“She didn’t want me to tell you…”

“She’s here.” A female voice said. Everyone turned and saw Millie standing on the other side of the room.

Millie’s POV

I didn’t make eye contact with any of the men that were standing in the room. I was looking at the wall. Everyone was completely silent, except for Jamie. He kept asking if everything was okay. Loui slowly began walking up to me but I backed up a little. I still wasn’t looking at any of them.

I wasn’t sure why I even flew up here to Boston in the first place. I guess I needed a new surrounding for a week. Ever since I quit my job I’ve been a wreck. I would spend my nights just being sad and lonely. Everytime Jamie tried to come over I would blatantly avoid him. Luckily, he was still here for me.

When I went to clean out my office, Tyler tried talking to me but I completely avoided him and slapped him in the face before I made my exit. Lindy tried to get me back into the job but I walked away and told him to fuck off. Before I walked out of the arena, I walked onto the ice where the boys were practicing and kissed Jamie in front of everyone. I mean hey, I wasn’t working with the Stars anymore. Mind as well get the press talking.

So my life has completely sucked. Leaving the Stars helped me a lot though. Coming to Boston, however, felt extremely weird. It was still silent in the room and I guess we were all waiting for someone to make a move.

“Wellll this is pretty awkward so I think we’re just gonna go…” Brad Marchand said. A group of guys followed him and suddenly it was Reilly, Loui, and me alone in the room. I made the first move and walked up to Loui giving him the biggest hug.

“I missed you.” I whispered.

“I missed you too, sis.” He replied tightening the hug.

“OKAY WHERE’S MY HUG?!” Reilly came into the hug. It was now a group hug between the three of us.

“I think we should all go talk somewhere.” I said after I broke out of the hug.

An hour later, we were sitting in the stands at TD Garden just looking out at the ice. This arena was awesome. I loved coming here during the season. The fans were so energetic.

“Okay so what’s been happening pretty lady?” Reilly asked. I sucked in a huge breath and explained everything that’s been happening in the last few months.

“Millie, you quit on the second day of Training Camp? You didn’t even give the kid a chance!” Loui said.

“He’s bad news, Loui. He brought Miriam to practice and you BOTH remember her.” I said.

“She was the lighthouse in the bay of stupidity.” Reilly said. I laughed at the comment and gave him a hi-five.

“I guess she just kind of, lit a spark in me and set me off.”

“So it was Miriam who made you quit… Not Tyler.” Loui said. He made a point too. Miriam did make me quit. Tyler had no idea what was going on. I finally realized that maybe Tyler did care. Maybe he really meant it when he tried apologizing to me but I was too hung up on his stereotypical hockey playing partier that I never noticed he really was a good guy.

“I can’t believe she mentioned Adam though. She knows how much he meant to you.” Reilly said. Adam was also really good friends with Reilly when the three of us went to the U. I shook my head and took a huge sigh. I guess Miriam was the only reason I left. Now, it was time for me to man up and go get my job back.

“I think it’s time for me to go claim my job back.” I said.

“When do you go back to Dallas?” Loui asked.

“Whenever I want.” I replied.
“Well we have a game tomorrow so you should definitely come.” Reilly said.

“Really? Against who?” I asked. Reilly and Loui looked at eachother then at me.

“Not Dallas…” I said shaking my head. Both of them nodded their heads in sync. Great, I thought. Just great. I guess I was going to face my boss tomorrow night before the game started.

“I’ll just talk to James tomorrow.” I said.

“Thanks guys. For being okay with the fact that I was incommunicado for three months.” I said.

“I wasn’t okay with that.” Loui said. I rolled my eyes at my older brother. I looked at him and he gave me the “Eriksson Family Death Stare.”

“What?” I said to him.

“I promised mom and dad that I would look after you no matter how far you are.” He said.

“You had me worried, Millie. I was honestly afraid that they had let you go because they found out.” Loui continued on.

“Yeah because you and Jamie being torn apart would be terrible.” Reilly said. I threw my head back and my eyebrows furrowed. How did Reilly know about us?

“Uh, Reilly, how did you know about Jamie and I?” I said to him.

“Oh it was so obvious before I left that you two were closer than normal. Remember the season ending party? I saw you two making out on the balcony.” Reilly said to me with a wink. I punched his shoulder in embarrassment.

I felt a lot better after coming to Boston to face Loui and open up to him about everything. The hardest part right now though, is facing James tomorrow before the Boston vs. Dallas game. Getting my job in the first place was hard enough. Getting it back would be even harder. Facing the entire Stars team tomorrow would be hard as well.

My thoughts were interrupted by music beginning to echo through the arena. Then I saw a group of guys skating onto the ice. They had no uniforms on so it looked like they were skating for the fun of it.

“HEY GUYS! COME GET YOUR SKATES ON!” Someone yelled from the ice. I looked at Loui and Reilly and we all smiled at eachother.