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CHAPTER ONE "YOU EVER THINK ABOUT IT?"
JUNE 9th, 2022 Lower Manhattan, New York City
'HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUUU!'
The dining table echoes into bouts of acoustic claps, Hudson holding a phone landscape between his fingertips.
'Blow em' out honey!' he says excitably.
Winnie tucks her hair behind her ears, brushing the flyaways from her battering lashes. 'Ready? Go!'
Meredith plants both hands firmly on the table, leaning forward to blow out each flame with a mighty gust of wind. The dining room goes dark, leaving the dim skyline to illuminate us all in tiny fragments of light. She lets out a piercing squeal of excitement, tiny hands erupting into claps.
'Well done Mer!' I cheer, getting up for the light switch on the other side of the room. Hudson lines her up a quick photo, swiping at the dribble lining her bottom lip with a napkin and adjusting the plastic tiara on her head.
'Getting old kiddo,' Alex tells her, to which Meredith toothlessly grins at him in smug pride. 'The big three.'
'I told you I could do it,' she says proudly, turning to Hudson and swatting him across the arm. He yells aloud, and the more he pouts at her, the harder she laughs.
'Alright alright,' Winnie says, laughing as she pulled Meredith free from her lap and plopped her down onto a chair. 'Give me two minutes to get us all cake before you both turn this place into a Green Day pit.'
I break away from my chair to follow her into the kitchen, Winnie carefully balancing the cake slathered with lavender icing as she went.
From the corner of my eye, I see Meredith side eye Alex with a mischievous glance, to which Alex reciprocates. 'Can I please have my present now?'
Winnie pulls her head from the cupboard she was rummaging through. 'Meredith!'
