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Emma was grateful that Mel had not suggested she date Luke Wright's brother. Nope, that was not going to happen. As for this being a monastery, she grinned at Mel. "No, it's not, but pretty close and, no socials with the boy scouts, at least not at this age. Besides, all the leaders are parents. Parents usually mean already married. Think I'll just pass on that."

As the conversation went to the sender of her letter, Emma looked at Mel, wondering what she meant by 'big name'. At the sight of the photo Mel, pulled up, Emma nodded, "Yes, that's him, that's my friend. Oh I know he's running for office, he mentioned it in his note. Said he some how, sorta happened into it," she told Mel. "He's a good person, I'm sure he'd do a good job if he wins."

"Not these days" Mel replied "statistics state that one in three marriages end up in divorce..and since married people are more likely to have kids ..quid pro quo". Mel knew a disturbing amount of these kind of statistics, it was one of the many excuses she had tended to fall back on whenever her Mum started on the 'why haven't you and Ethan tied the knot yet??' talk. Mel had hoped a baby would have quietened down all the talk of 'body clocks' and the like but granddaughter or not Moria Ashton seemed to be immune to any end to her campaign to see her daughter married off to a good man. Mel would never admit though that her first crush had been on a one of the boys down the road who had been a scout. She of course had wanted to join but Guides where for girls and Scouts where for boys.. regardless of the fact that much of their groups where girls these days. Mel didn't know what had become of Aaron but the fact that he was a Muggle and she (as her Mum always insisted on reminding her) was a Witch meant most of her childhood was a bit tricky when it came to making friends.

It was hard not to feel those warnings from her Mother even to this day, while her Dad had always been about letting Muggles take their place in the wizarding world she'd always been brought up knowing that she was 'different' from most people and that she had to hide that part of herself away when it came to making friends. Now of course it was the opposite problem Mel had to worry about, that Emma was going to get hurt by falling for a wizard. Every time Mel had dated a wizard they had been unreliable at best and self absorbed at worst. Already she felt right to lay it out to Emma that Dunena was hiding from her who he was, yet she was left with her mouth open and feeling lost when Emma said she knew. "Sorta.. happened into it?" Mel repeated, doubtful as to how someone could just 'accidentally' fall into a political campaign...well okay her Dad had often claimed that he'd 'kind' of fallen into politics but that was because he didn't expect to have a magical child, what excuse did Dunena have? "So..." Mel really didn't know what to say, everything was telling her to warn Emma to stay away from Dunena Reid, she'd listened to some of the guys rants on the radio and her in her guts she felt that there was something wrong with the man. Yet on the other hand Mel wasn't being fair was she? "... the tea should be ready?" she said after a awkward pause. Damn her always trying to be the 'sensible one', what if she just didn't like Dunena Reid because he was from the Ministry of Magic? There was no question that she was suspicious and who knew maybe there was a totally innocent story behind the Llama incident? Maybe Emma was right?

Maybe Llamas could fly? Resting her head against her hand a moment Mel tried to figure out what to do, it was like one of those decision points in a game where you knew both choices where not going to be pretty but you couldn't just save and load again if you got it wrong. "Well I do know one way to be sure if a guy's the one.. " Mel said as she reached over to nab a cupcake. "Invite him to the wedding and see if he survives Marcus.. trust me if they do that you know they're for keeps" Mel laughed, yet it was true, Mel had seen every one of her boyfriends after Nathan in highschool 'disappear' after Marcus dropped in on that broomstick of his. It had taken many years for her to realise just how suspicious it had been for him to happen to show up when she had a date or was having a romantic night in. Even Ethan had gone though that baptism of fire.. though in his case it was more magical explosions and allergic reactions.. let alone the whole Doctor Who thing.

Emma had to grin at what was supposed to be Mel's argument for finding 'Mr. Close Enough to Right for Government Work' in inter-social events with Boy Scouts. Right. So not happening. Emma wasn't really looking for any degree of 'Mr. Right' to 'Mr. Never Going to be Quite Right but Will Do'. Besides that, the argument was working to Emma's benefit on a different topic as she looked over at Ashleigh with a raised eyebrow. The baby responded by waving her toy, which to Emma said, 'Go for it, Auntie Em!'. So Emma did. "So that means its someone's not worth keeping and I would want that why? Oh, and by the way, since you already have the baby, seems like you need to go backwards and pick up a step, don't it?" Emma reached over and high-fived her niece as she left Mel to be detoured by that.

Okay, so Mel wasn't detoured for long. As she continued on about Dunena's involvement in politics. "Well, yes, that's what his letter said," Emma replied, pushing the letter over for Mel to read. "And it's just meeting for dinner, catching up. Not like he's asking me out for a date or anything. We've met a few times for coffee when he was here before.. Back when Lisa was in the hospital. I ran into him there. I think he was visiting someone, too. I never really asked." To say Emma was book smart and dating not quite so clever would not be wrong. However, she tilted her head and thought about it for a minute when Mel said to invite him to the wedding. "Really? You think it would be okay to ask him to come with me? It's not like I have anyone to ask, everyone else is already there that I know and with someone." This was walking right into Mel's plan whether Emma realized it or not. Only other option would be for Mel to go into 007 mode and follow Emma on her 'not a date date'.

Seeing Emma glance over at Ashleigh Mel smiled a bit at her waving her toy Koala. Funny that for all the toys that had been the one Ashleigh kept going back to. Mel had to wonder if there was going to be lasting damage from exposing Ashleigh to Ebby at such a young age. Distracted by Ashleigh Mel pulled a blank at what Emma was talking about, any connection between herself, the M word and babies still felt alien to her, at heart she was still the same Mel Ashton who refused to settle down, it was just that she happened to have less time for pubbing and more time on well, taking care of Ashleigh now. The good thing about Ethan was he let her continue her little fantasy of independence, all she had to do was make sure he had a book and there was no issue with sneaking out to the shed for some quality girl vs machine time. Mel had never had that kind of freedom in a relationship before and maybe that was why it had managed to last so long. Mel needed to trust that Ethan was the right guy and she didn't want the pressure of marriage and having to conform to that kind of relationship to get in the way of what they had. People changed when they got married, she'd seen it happen to more then a few friends and she didn't want to end up fat and thinking about renovations when there was so many better things she still wanted to do!

Either way it wasn't her love life that was of interest, Mel was careful to not look too eager at taking the letter from Emma and reading it herself, curious to see just what Dunena Reid had written. It was very strange to think that here she was reading a OWL penned by someone who was more often then not in the world headlines. "Not Important?" Mel snorted when she read that, only the very rich could consider running for Minister to be anything less then a history changing event. "Youknow I might have only gotten my recent romance education from The Cherry Clinger Show but I'm pretty sure dinner together counts as a date" Mel pointed out before handing the letter back to Emma. It was interesting that while Mel had never really wished for a sister growing up she did enjoy hanging out with Emma and occasionally letting herself have the luxury of being a girl. "So.. dinner with a guy like that is going to be posh.. got a gown in mind?" Mel teased, she'd certainly not be caught dead in a gown.. well outside of the occasional bridesmaid duties that she couldn't avoid. Speaking of bridesmaids Mel nodded in pretend 'being understanding' mode as Emma put two and two together that yes she could bring a date to the wedding, "Well yeah, sure.." she was tempted to blurt out that at least this way if things didn't turn out well with Dunena Reid she'd have a posse for backup. Mel was rather excited about this idea now, it was the next best thing to installing a remote monitoring program on Emma's phone to eavesdrop on this date of hers. Not that Mel would of course, it was far to bothersome and anyway it would no doubt be amazingly boring like the time Marcus had gotten it in his head for them to provide 'backup' on one of Gerard's dates. Safe to say the date had gone well for Gerard but dull for them listening at home to endless chitchat. Mel had thought Tiff was bad enough when she was around but nothing could compare to 'Oh That Wonderful Gerard Hunter Q.C'. Mel didn't know if Tiff and Gerard getting married would be the end of it or just make the whole thing a million times worse!

"Well, it's not as important as say, Gerard's birthday party for Tiffany," Emma told her, "or even Marcus asking Rowan to see U2 and all the after stuff," she continued. "It's just two friends catching up on each other's lives." So, apparently, Mel did not see it that way as she continued on. However, it seemed someone forgot a few other dinners out as Emma grinned and asked her friend, "Soooo, if you and Gerard went out to eat, it was a date and you wore a gown?" Emma smirked and looked over to see Ashleigh doing what might have been interpreted as a 'facepalm'. It was known far and wide that Mel and gowns were not the most common sight in the southern hemisphere. Come to think of it, northern hemisphere as well. At Mel's assurance that she could invite Dunena to the wedding, Emma nodded slowly, "I might, depends on if he'll even be in Australia then."

Mel had to roll her eyes "Well yes, a proposal on the first date might be a bit rushed" no, Mel was not going to let go of that d-word. Ignoring the cliche 'oh we're just friends' line she looked embarrassed and rather taken aback when Emma mentioned Gerard. Ah, yes, a whole world of complicated that was going to involve her giving in some self-esteem in order to keep her argument in track. Grabbing her phone she flicked though the files with a frown until she came across one of the oldest folders and held it up for Emma to see "Been there and done that" Mel admitted showing her a photo Gerard had taken when they'd gone to New York for the Monty Python Gala "I was his plus one" she said with a flutter of eyelashes. Mel had to feel a tiny bit regretful about the dress, there was no way in hell she'd fit into it now..more a case boobs and butt sticking out everywhere. It was amazing how much your body could morph over a year from fit and fantastic to a blobby baby milk factory. Her only hope was to try and get rid of as much of it as possible before the 'dreaded 30s' took effect and she was stuck putting on weight forever.

Okay so it wasn't that bad but a girl was allowed to feel fat every so often and going up a couple of jean sizes wasn't so bad when compared to some. Glancing over at Ashleigh Mel looked suspicious to see her daughter with her hand over her face, until Ashleigh started tasting her fingers leaving Mel just thinking that she was eager for some cake. Mel was sure there was probably a million rules saying you shouldn't give such and such to babies but surely a little cupcake couldn't hurt? It was no worse then the 'Nyan Cats Mutant Cookies' she'd made with Abby after all! Chopping a cupcake in half before offering part to Ashleigh who immediately made a high pitch "CA-CA" in excitement Mel was sure Emma had taken the bait, "I'm sure with the campaign and all he'll be running back and forth a lot.. they say Australia's a key base of support these days" Mel stated before taking a bite of her cupcake and then half-choking/half-laughing at Ashleigh who had managed to smear icing across half her face. That was the thing, for all the downsides of babies they always managed to do something that made you happy.. right up until you had to work hard to try and de-sticky them after.