It wasn't really that hard to understand why the other woman had decided to invade her personal space. This part of the food court was pretty much deserted except for her table, and besides it was never fun to eat alone. Studying the other woman more closely she wondered if they hadn’t met before. Maybe even at her sister’s wedding? Hadn’t this woman been a maid of honour or something?

It irked Tasha that the answer and the woman’s name was just dangling in front of her but not within her grasp. Irritating. Gesturing to the brownie Tasha mused. "Only the fact that you choose a brownie when there is a whole host of delicious desserts on display." Taking another piece of her pie she raised her spoon to her mouth.

She paused before putting it into her mouth. "I don’t suppose you attended my sister Isobel’s wedding, because you look very much like someone in the wedding procession?" Or Tasha could just as easily have mixed this woman up with someone else. Izzy and Wes did know a lot of people.

She'd given up on scanning her memory for any hint of facial recognition. The blonde would remain a mystery for a little longer. Instead, Emily took a modest bite out of her brownie, chewed and washed it down with a generous gulp of coffee. It was a good thing she was a quick eater, or else she may have choked on the mouthful.

"Never, underestimate the brownie," she stated, seriously. No, really. Just because it didn't have fancy creams or jellied fruits, latice pastry and the sort... it didn't make it any less spectacular. In face, it was sort of an underdog, an EPIC underdog.

She was about to take another measured bite of the brown and gooey substance when the blondie spoke. Errr... OOOHHH. Yes, it was no wonder she looked familiar.
"Errr yeah... I was her, flower girl." She still wasn't thrilled with the flower bit of the whole thing, but she liked Izzy, an awful lot.
Mystery solved. "And sorry... your name was?"

Tasha dug into her pie hoping that she hadn’t been totally mistaken about where she had thought she had met the woman. If she was then that would be a bit embarrassing. Swallowing down the pie with some apple juice which she so far had forgotten that she had bought she focused on what the other woman was saying.

Nodding she agreed seriously trying not giggle. "The brownie has it perks. But I wanted more sugar today." As if that explained it all when it didn’t really cause cookies held sugar too.

"I'm Natasha," She introduced herself with the flash of a smile. "I was Izzy’s maid of honour at the wedding." The woman had agreed to be the flower girl? A job usually given to very young girl’s Tasha vividly remembered. She must like Izzy a lot to go along with that Tasha contemplated. Would her friends do that for her when it became her time?

"So how do you know Izzy?"Obvious question.

Of course it had its perks, it was so full of chocolaty goodness, and enough sugar... no need for that cream meringue stuff. Ohhh... Natasha... yep, no. She still didn't remember, but she sounded familiar, looked familiar, so it all made sense. And of course the woman had a normal, even noble, position in the bridal party.

For the sake of introductions, Emily too offered her name before any further clarification. "Er, yeah... I'm Emily, Emily Browne," not to be confused with brownie.
"We worked together in the Auror Office," though that was some time ago now.. "and she stayed with me for a while after her split from Recard," which was also quite some time ago... still, Iz was more than just an ex-boss, she was a good friend.

Cue more brownie munching.

Emily Browne.

Natasha said the name to herself in her head over and over several times. Where had she heard that name? Hadn’t she read her name in a ministry memo? When she finally remembered she blurted out with amazement. "You're the new department head of MLE right? The youngest department head in ministry history, since Harry Potter's time." And not to mention a close friend of her sisters and probably Wesley’s too.

The mention of Izzy's split from Recard made a flash of unease pass over Tasha’s face. "I'm glad Izzy has Wesley now. He is a lot better for her then Recard ever was." She commented quietly.

Putting her focus on the pie she dug into it again.

It was a good thing she ate fast, or else she would have spat her chewed brownie at the woman by accident.

Errrr...

"Yep, that's me..." go figure, she didn't think anyone cared enough to remember such details, and it sort of bothered her that they did. Or at least, that Natasha did. That being said, the woman hadn't gotten it quite right, confusing the facts, as it were. "Youngest Head Auror actually, though I suppose that means it's likely that I'm also the youngest Department Head..." something she hadn't quite considered until now. There had been a few not much older than herself though, so, nothing too out of the ordinary.

Washing down the lingering crumbs with some coffee, Emily observed the blonde dig into her pie, at least she had good judgement, or so, it seemed.
"I fail to see how Recard can be good for anyone, let alone someone as dear as our Izzy," she mused. Admittedly, she probably ought to stop calling him Recard and start addressing him as Armen, she didn't want to go unintentionally throwing Ellis into the mix.

Here's Layla for you Laila ^_^
 

These cravings were driving her crazy and causing her to overuse her scale but she had to do as the baby wanted. Though why was this baby wanting such unhealthy food? When she was pregnant with Magnolia, the only thing she wanted were melon balls and fruity things, but this baby..ugh..cakes, sweets..CAKES..

She'd be a whale by the end of this...or not. Besides the weight the baby carried, Layla had never actually gained any additional weight after having her baby. Ah yes, good genes.

The matter at hand however was stocking her plate with as many sweet treats as was possible.

Vic didn't have time to get out of the ministry this time. He had so much to review and reanalyze. Ministry food was more than satisfactory, anyway, he thought about why he never succumbed to having all his meals here instead of at the pizza parlour, but hey that place made him meet someone with special powers, heh.

With his notepad tucked under his arm, in case he needed to wait for something he'd have his work right here and wouldn't waste any time. Like right now as he watched a woman devouring the entire bar-- "Oh Merlin." He laughed and approached Layla, eyes on the pile on her plate. "You'll sweat sugar by the end of the day." He stretched his hand to steal some food off her plate. hehehehe.

Tasha somehow got the instinct impression that Emily wasn't too pleased that she had remembered her new title. Feeling like she had to explain herself she added hastily."I only remember because my boyfriend works in MLE too; Dorian Tamerlane." She still hadn’t gotten used to saying fiancé when she talked about Dorian. The engagement was still too new to her.

"Wow, youngest Head Auror," Tasha repeated not being able to just yet get over the amazing fact. "Why did you want to become an auror?" she wondered curiously. Realizing that she was maybe a little nosy she mumbled. "You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to." Privacy and personal space she respected that. So if Emily didn’t want tell her it was totally fine.

Shrugging Tasha agreed. "I don't even know what she saw in him. Recard wasn't exactly what I'd call a good catch for Izzy."

Layla turned to look at who was crazy enough to put their hand on her plate and take her craving food because it was about to be a show down in the ministry right this very moment, hmm.

That was until she realize that it was Vic. She looked at him and shook her head. "Nah I'll flush my system with some water when I'm done then I'll begin my continuous trips to the loo. Sigh..pregnancy.

"How are you Vic..how was/is the trial?" She bit into a cupcake..."mmm..mmm this is good."

Flushing the sugar out with water, sounded like a good idea. Vic forgot that pregnancy didn't cloud one's judgment, but again what did he know about pregnant women? He grinned at her and bit into the stolen cupcake. "Nice. You have it all figured out. I guess I should be quick before the bar is licked clean." Hehe.

Oh the trial. Mehhh. Vic shrugged and grabbed some pumpking pasties, "The defendant and her attorney escaped just before the jury committee discussed the case we presented. It's a huge failure on the security's parties, but I suspect she's had an inside help. She definitely used some kind of a portkey, she couldn't have disapparated." There were wards against that. But enough of that, "How's your work. Shouldn't you be on maternity leave or something?"

It didn't surprise her that the woman was spoken for, but it did surprise her that her boyfriends, as called it, was an MLEer. Of course, she knew Dorian, mostly from the Cult days, having conducted a stakeout of the office with him. "Dorian, good man he is," she acknowledged conversationally, accepting it as a reason for the Natasha's hearing about her.

The blonde was rather nosy, or at least, nosier than most. Emily didn't like chatting, or sharing. It even irked her that Natasha thought to tell her she didn't need to share her private information. Of course she didn't. She knew that, but for whatever reason... she obliged. "Law enforcement runs in the family," she mused, after ignoring the woman's wow. It really wasn't anything to wow about, not for those that knew her at least... "Father was an Auror, so I followed in his footsteps."

At any rate, she didn't like answering questions, she much preferred asking them. With this in mind, Emily skipped over Natasha's comment about Recard, and trained her gaze on the woman's blonde locks before panning to her eyes.
"So Natasha, what do you do here?"
Anything useful? Could this be classed as networking?

Layla laughed and nudged Vic a little. She wasn't that bad, was she? Okay so maybe she did ravage pastry shops and the dessert bar a lot but it was no more than any other pregnant woman with a craving. "I'm not that bad am I?" She looked at him. Nope, she definitely was not.

"Wait what?" That information was enough for Layla to actually put down her pastry plate and properly look at Vic. He was kidding right? "Damn right it's a huge failure on their part. How does a crimminal escape a locked room in the ministry with trained professional security personnel? The media is going to have a field day with this one Vic." Minister Greingoth had instated her at the prophet to control such things but this new minister didn't seem to care about that stuff. She frowned. "So then...you think there's a traitor in Transportation or MLE?"

"Yes Dorian is a good man." Tasha affirmed quietly. One of the best, someone you could always count on. A million times better than any of the other men who had made appearances in her life. And that was a fact which she constantly had to remind her mother about every time they talked.

Unconsciously she started to play with the ring on her finger as Emily brought up how being an Auror ran in the family. "The only one who has worked in Law Enforcement in my family was Izzy if you don't count in Wesley." Largely due to the fact that her parents had made it abundantly clear that they didn’t approve of any of their children working in that field of work.

It seemed that Emily like asking questions too. She wondered if that was just a personal trait or a habit or maybe just simple curiosity. She didn't mind any way. Answering she said. "I work in the Accidents and Catastrophes department as a spell researcher, member of the Experimental Charms Committee and department liaison to the ministers offices." Tasha didn't mind sharing cause it could mean getting to know Emily beyond just a fleetingy lunch companion.

There was something about Natasha... that didn't sit right with her. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, it perhaps had something to do with the fact that she didn't often socialise with other women. Especially ones that were non-MLE. The blonde was, good, in that innocent and wholesome way. She and Izzy were alike in that sense, though Izzy had a bit more of an edge.

Sipping her coffee some more, Emily nod her head to show she was listening.

Oddly enough, she hadn't expected the woman to be an A&C employee, she didn't seem the accident or catastrophe type, but there was something else in her title that struck her as ... interesting. She was almost afraid to ask, but went with it anyway, "So you work with Brad then? Bradley Wills?" she asked. He did that charms stuff, didn't he? Or something to that effect at least.

It was too early to judge given that they had just met and were just talking over lunch but Emily seemed different from the few women Tasha had taken time to talk to and attempt to get to know at the ministry. She seemed guarded. Being guarded though was not a bad thing. Dorian was that way about certain things and she respected him for that. Tasha just hoped that one day he’d be able to trust her and love her enough to tell her about the tough stuff.

Swallowing down another piece of pie with the help of some juice she nodded. "Yes I work with Brad. We are colleagues. We work on a lot of charms cases together since he is a charms developer." Their jobs interrelated a lot given that they were often called out to the same emergencies. "He is on the Experimental Charms Committee too."

"Oh, wonderful..." She was beginning to wonder what the point of her question had been. Honestly, what purpose did it serve? She had zero interest in discussing the man, she had little interest in charms research ad whatever it was they did... and now she somehow managed to steer the conversation to a dead end.

Awkward.

This is why talking with women was painful. Perhaps though, she could work on her interpersonal skills. Let this be a challenge.
"So how goes the spell research? Anything ground breaking I ought to know about?" See, she was making an effort. On the one hand, she was taking genuine interest in Natasha's work, on the other hand, it was also networking.

Why had Emily asked about Brad? Did she know him? Like him? Tasha ignored the questions that popped up in her deciding that she didn’t know the other woman well enough to ask about why Emily wondered if she worked with Brad. Questions just lead to more questions.

Sigh.
Talking to Layla wasn’t this odd. And with Izzy words just followed out by themselves with Emily it didn’t feel easy. She concluded that was probably because they didn’t know each other that much.

Pulling a hand through her hair she focused on what Emily was asking. Spell research. Oh, work. Shaking her head she responded. "Not at the moment, but we are trying to see if we can come up with some spells that will make our lab more safe to work in after that big explosion last year." Furrowing her brows thinking she asked. "Weren't you involved in the big investigation after it happened, the explosion I mean?"

No? Oh.. what a shame. So she wouldn't even get any value out of this chat.

Emily nod her head in understanding, it wasn't surprising they needed to up-grade their defensive spells and enforced new strategies... that disaster could have been a lot worse than what it had been. But then she shook her head, "no... I was working the de Talone case... among other things..." little mishaps like that weren't her thing, not unless there was a dark wizard wanted for heinous crimes behind it. "I was Head Auror at the time, my primary objective was tracking and apprehending the dark criminals... and assisting in the case development." Ergo, not investigating lab explosions. That being said, if it were to happen again, it would matter to her. Now she got to play security among other things.

It might not have been the best idea for her to visit the Food Court on this particular day, not as annoyed as she was feeling the past few days. Typically one of these moods was not all that conducive for being in social situations and she was best situated to snack in her office if at all. But she was out of her small stash of candy and wanted a little something to help quell the mood she was in.

Well. That was stupid. Didn't they normally have two sides of the dessert bar open to keep traffic going? Though she supposed since it was an off time they only had one side open to conserve things or.. she didn't know. And of course someone was standing right in her way taking his sweet old time.

The brunette wasn't exactly sure what she wanted anyway, seeing as there were no lemondrops as far as she could see. Not that she could see much from where she was standing. Lightly tapping her fingers against the side of her leg as she stood, Mariel donned a faint smile. She would not be rude as it was not this man's fault for her mood, but maybe she could help his indecisiveness and move things along here. "Having trouble deciding?" she casually asked. "So much to choose from.." Which she could attest to herself.

If he had known beforehand that he would be having this much problem choosing he would have rationalized his choices over the meal he'd just had but that wasn't the case. It wasn't until after he'd had his lunch that he decided to grab a little dessert for Emily to munch on. Planning in advance was usually something he was good at, must have been the distraction of the day's work getting to him. In any case he needed to grab something and go. He had a Department to get back to.

Gavin took a step forward...but maybe three back as he contemplated, not registering anyone around him. It wasn't a habit of his to pay attention to anyone but himself. In fact, if the woman hadn't spoken he would never have known there was someone waiting behind him.

How long had she been standing there? Didn't matter, his eyes shot to her, giving her a once over. "You might say that." He replied, deciding to go the more social route in this interaction as opposed to an indecipherable mutter that hinted he'd rather make decisions without company. "I don't usually have anything from this table. What do you recommend?" Her being a woman was a plus, they seemed to pick the right things on the odd occasion and this occasion was certainly odd. It wasn't often that he decided to take something back for her when he went on break.

Mariel resumed the light tapping of her fingers on the side of her leg, watching the man in front of her as she waited for him to decide and get a move on. OH. Mr. Oblivious was backing up without making sure someone was behind him and she took a step back to make sure she wasn't bumped into. Not that she took a look behind her before she retreated either, though a quick glance over her shoulder afterwards told her that no one was there anyway.

And she resumed her light smile as his attention was caught by her words and he looked in her direction. Really, she had to fight the urge to laugh. Not really meaning to be rude, but yes, it was obvious he was having trouble making up his mind. Though she did vaguely wonder why. Was it that monumental a decision? At least whatever amusement she was garnering from the situation was slowly edging the annoyance away.

Recommend.. because she was the waitress here? No, she would be nice, especially since she had spoken up first to sort of prompt him along, and possibly she could steer him in the right direction so they could both get what they needed. "Well.. they do make decent chocolate chip cookies here." Like fresh out of the oven good. "But if you're looking for something a little more substantial, you can't go wrong with the cheesecake.. especially when they have the fruit topping out." She peered over his shoulder to see if there were any cherries or raspberries today. Hm. Did she want all that for herself though? No.. she was in the mood for something not normally had.

This shouldn't have been that big a deal. Emily certainly didn't seem picky when it came to sugar in general...but at the same time he couldn't just pick anything. Having to put all this thought into it was a the first sign he should abandon this venture altogether. She would be none the wiser if he didn't turn up but then he'd have no reason to invade her office before heading back to his not that he needed reason.

It didn't take much figuring to see she was growing impatient with him just standing there and were it another situation, then there might have been a tinge of guilt eating away at his non-existent conscience but as it stood, she could have asked him to scoot a bit and let her cut infront of him. There wasn't anyone behind her, being last in line would have worked better for him, less people to hold up. Oh but clearly she wasn't one of them. No. She had no intention of cutting which meant she was here to oblige him.

"Yes...I do suppose the cookies would be a good choice...yes yes." You would think he didn't have an office to get back to with the way he stood there deliberating, not at all concerned about wasting the lady's time. She wasn't one of his, the productivity of Level 1 wasn't at stake here...technically. "But do you think I should get something more substantial? I mean, knowing her she probably grabbed a drink and decided to work through lunch."