"It's a wonderful gift," Merri confirmed, "thank you so much, again!"
Hearing that Founders was next month drove the point home harder that they were nearing a year. And even though the past year had been one that, looking back, had been marked with more terrible things than wonderful (though the wonderful he wouldn't take back for the world, as brief as it'd been), it had been a rather quick year, too.
"It's coming up so soon," he breathed. "But I'm looking forward to it! Maybe it'll be the start of a better year! But we should go, definitely! To both of them, when they open." He took a sip of his coffee and then remembered, "Oh! Do you still want to go on that trip? Did you get the time off?"