Friends with benefits

Selwyn sighed heavily. That wouldn't matter. They would already have their minds made up by then.

"You know you can always come to us," he said. "The rest of the family, too."

He smiled when she finally agreed to help.

"Of course I'll have fun," he assured her. "That's why I asked you. Because you're fun, so you must know some other fun girls, right?"

"I promise I won't make you an accomplice to an unhappy relationship. If I wasn't interested in being happy, or making someone else happy, I wouldn't have come here. I'd have put a personals ad in The Daily Prophet."

She gave him a small grateful matter but said nothing more about the tricky matter of being a veela. It was something she had survived this long more or less ignoring, and she hoped to continue on in that manner.

Now that they were on the same page, she felt a little better. It still felt strange, aiding and abetting with a traditional marriage that she had been so worried her parents would hope for her. Especially with an ex.

"Okay," she said, clapping her hands together. She stood and suddenly whipped her head around until she went over and pulled a drawer open. She withdrew a pad of paper and a pencil and returned to her seat. "What are we looking for? Preferences? Deal breakers? Lay them on me."

Preferences? Deal Breakers? Note taking? Selwyn hadn't expected Dom to become so suddenly enthusiastic. Hell, even when he'd turned up, hoping for a bit of help, he'd thought she'd just set him up with a friend or two. Not, go scouting, or whatever it was she had in mind.

"Um, good communication skills."

That had been the main problem with Addie. It wasn't exactly that she'd acted like he could read her mind. More like she made assumptions about everything, without ever checking to see if he agreed. And the way she put herself last all the time.

"Confidence," he added. "I guess a deal breaker is if they can't say no to me, or won't tell me when I'm outta line. Or are conflict averse in general. I know I'm not easy to live with so if people act like I am it makes me paranoid."