The Day Has Come (Counting on Hockey #4)

Chapter 9: For Charity

Tonight is the annual Minnesota Wild Change for Children event. Every year, the team and it's staff gather at a charity ball and other attendees buy auctioned off Wild equipment and gear. We usually raise about half a million dollars for the local children's hospital. I haven't been able to make the past few years, either Cole and I weren't together, and last year, I had to be in Chicago with my parents for some family event.

"Can you tie this, please? I can't get it", Cole says to me as he walks into the bathroom door next to me, as I finish on my makeup. Cole holds his bow tie between his hands. He's dressed in a black and white tuxedo with a bright pale yellow bow tie to match my pale yellow dress.

"Come here", I say as I put down my tube of mascara. Cole walks up to me and I grab the tie from his hands. Wrapping it around his neck, I tie it tightly and he's ready to go. I finished just in time for my curling iron to beep that it was heated enough. I start on the ends of my hair and Cole brings in my purple shoes and sets the unworn pair on the counter.

I finish my hair, and my makeup, and set my shoes on the tile floor, stepping into them. I take a final look in the mirror, then grab my purse from the bed, an walk out to see Cole standing in the kitchen doorway.

"Ready to go?" I ask Cole.

He nods. We walk out the front door and use the elevator to get to the parking garage, where Cole's car is. Traveling out of the garage, we drive through the streets of Saint Paul and into Minneapolis to the charity ball.

Cole and I drive up to the large auditorium where the Ball is. A valet comes up to Cole's side of the car and takes it away after Cole comes around to my side of the car and helps me out.

I wrap my left arm around Cole's right as we walk into the ball. People are dressed in suits and in dresses. Most of the dresses are plain, common colors with no patterns or embellishments. My dress is close, but I do have jewels on the waistline and over my chest.

Cole and I are met by Cole's teammates and their wives. We're immersed in conversation as more couples and small groups of people trickle into the room. Champagne is passed around by servers. Cole hands me one and I take small sips of it. I've never been a huge fan of champagne, I usually go for regular wine or a blended drink with hard alcohol, but even then I'm not a huge fan.

"Good evening, and welcome to the annual Change for Children charity ball, brought to you by the Minnesota Wild", a women on the stage says into the microphone. Everyone gives a small clap. "Thank you for coming tonight. We have very special items tonight for you to auction on. The silent auction will be at the back of the room starting in just a few minutes. If you would choose to participate, see Mr. Quinn at the end of the table for a number, winners will be announced at the end of the night. enjoy your night, dinner will be served at the top of the hour in the dining hall. Everyone will be given their table number on the way in. Thank you".

Everybody seems to look at the clock to see that we still have 45 minutes until dinner, then we go back to talking. I finish the glass of champagne and a server takes it away, handing me another one. I don't take sip, and probably won't.

Dinnertime soon arrives and people are whisked into the dining hall. Cole and I are sat at table six with both people we don't know and Cole's teammates. Everyone is given a choice of steak, chicken, or fish. I choose the fish, which is salmon, and Cole goes with the steak.

Dinner was absolutely amazing and then everyone is given a small bowl of limoncello ice cream with sprigs of mint on top. Everything I've eaten tonight tasted amazing, and I really wish I could cook like that.

Everyone is brought back into the auditorium and people start to bid on the auctioned items. Cole and I grab a number from the attendant at the end of the table, though most of the stuff is just signed hockey memorabilia from the team, that if we did want, we could just ask the player for, but the other things we could buy and the money goes to the children's hospital.

There are three different vacation packages for couples. One to Paris, one to the Bahamas, and the other to Cancun. With the highest bid for the Bahamas at 5,550, Cole and I decide to bid at six-thousand. It's seems like a lot, but Cole and I had looked at almost the same trip package a while back, and it came out to be 12,000, so we thought it was a good deal for it, if we were to win of course.

The bidding ends at nine ten sharp and everyone had placed their last bid. We had checked on our bid for 6,000 dollars to the Bahamas and seen one other person had bid higher by only 100 dollars, so we went for 6,500.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the auction is now over and I am pleased to tell you, that with the highest bids counted up, we have raised for six-hundred thousand dollars for the children's hospital", the same woman from earlier says into the same microphone on the stage. Everybody cheers for a moment. "Now, for the winners".

the women goes on with the winners for the sports memorabilia and equipment from both the Wild and the Vikings. Most of the highest bidders are the same five or six people who bough each team for 20,000 dollars or more. the last items are the three trips. Cole and I stand anxiously and wait for the Bahamas trip to be announced. Our number is 17102, and we wait for it to be called out by the announcer woman.

"The highest bidder for a fourteen day, thirteen night trip to the Bahamas, is number seventeen-one-o-two".

We're going to the Bahamas.